The Private War of Women US Soldiers

Many US female soldiers are sexually assaulted by their male comrades and can't trust
the military to protect them. Not everyone realizes how different the Iraq war is for women than any other American war in history. More than 160,500 American female soldiers have served in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East since the war began in 2003, which means one in seven soldiers is a woman. Women now make up 15 percent of active duty forces, four times more than in the 1991 Gulf War. At least 450 women have been wounded in Iraq, and 71 have died,more female casualties and deaths than in the Korean, Vietnam and first Gulf Wars combined. And women are fighting in combat.

Rape, sexual assault and harassment are nothing new to the military. They were a serious problem for the Women Army Corps in Vietnam, and the rapes and sexual hounding of Navy women at Tailhook in 1991 and of Army women at Aberdeen in 1996 became international news. A 2003 survey of female veterans from Vietnam through the first Gulf War found that 30 percent said they were raped in the military. A 2004 study of veterans from Vietnam and all the wars since, who were seeking help for post-traumatic stress disorder, found that 71 percent of the women said they were sexually assaulted or raped while in the military. And in a third study, conducted in 1992-93 with female veterans of the Gulf War and earlier wars, 90 percent said they had been sexually harassed in the military, which means anything from being pressured for sex to being relentlessly teased and stared at.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

http://www.au.af.mil/au/aul/bibs/sex/haras.htm

Women who serve in the American military are fighting more than just the enemy. They continue to face unconscionable rates of sexual harassment or assault.

One in seven female soldiers who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and later required health care reported being sexually assaulted or harassed, according to a Veterans Affairs study first reported by the Los Angeles Times.

This should send an alarm throughout the military and outrage through Congress and the White House. Clearly, not enough is being done to prevent, track and punish sexual abuse, or to create a climate that encourages reporting it.

The ugly statistics undercut the fact that America has more women in uniform today than at any time in its history, with at least 160,000 deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan or the Middle East since 2003. Recruiting will not be helped if so many women find the military a debasing, even dangerous, experience on their own side of the lines.

In the VA data, only 0.7% of male soldiers reported similar experiences of sexual abuse or harassment.

STORY NO 1:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/697539.stm

STORY NO 2:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/07/22/military.women.sexual.assault.ap/index.html

STORY NO 3:

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/19/women.veterans/index.html

STORY NO 4:

Watch a video interview of US female soldier on CNN about sexual harrasment.

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/03/19/women.veterans/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

The number of mobile phone users in the country has crossed 90 million.

Mobilink: 31,359,049
Ufone: 18,801,402
Telenor: 18,472,445
Warid: 16,157,778
Zong: 5,092,476
Total: 90,204,284

According to Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), an increase of 29 per cent was recorded in mobile phone subscription during the month of September in comparison with the same period in the previous year whereas it increased by 0.7 per cent against August.

20pc mobile users change handset thrice a year in Pakistan

Pakistan is a lucrative market for manufacturers of mobile handsets and other telecom equipment as 20 percent of mobile users in Pakistan change their handset thrice a year. A similar percentage of mobile users change the mobile handset once a year and this could be a successful business model, said a regulator Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in its latest report-2007. A survey conducted by the Authority this year also found that 20 percent user change the mobile handset every two years. The report said the strategic location of Pakistan, which has spent about $1.347 billion on import of cellular mobile handsets, and other telecom apparatus in 2006-07 is also an added advantage. The potential investors can also target other emerging and developing economies in the region by exporting handsets or equipment from Pakistan to provide better economies of scale, it said and added the potential investors may also explore public private partnership in such adventures. The report said the spending of $1.347 billion on import of cellular mobile handsets and other telecom apparatus in 2006-07 puts burden on country’s foreign reserves and increases trade gap. During the period, about 4.2 percent of imports were for the telecom sector while this ratio was only 2.4 percent in 2003-2004. The report said the imports of cellular mobile sets with battery shot up from $144.1 million in 2003-04 to $670.2 million in 2006-07 while other telecom apparatus imported into the country went up to $ 677.5 million in 2006-07 as compared to $234.8 million in 2003-04. It said the exponential growth in the telecom sector is burdening the overall imports where sector requires spending of about $1 billion just on the import of cellular mobile hand sets annually, the report said during the last four years cellular mobile handsets worth $1.7 billion have been imported. According to the report, the government was considering giving incentives to leading manufacturers of cellular mobile handsets and telecom equipment to consider manufacturing mobile sets and other equipment locally where more than two to three million subscribers were being added on cellular mobile networks every month and still a large patentable exists.

introduction to ISLAM

5 minutes introduction to ISLAM

Please share with your Muslim Brothers
and Non-Muslim Friends.

The is called “Qasida Burdah” by Mohammad Al Husayan

No matter who wins, things will become worse for Pakistan.

Even though much of the U.S. and world media seems to have already decided who will win the 2008 U.S. Presidential election, the fact remains that the elections are determined by votes, not by polls. Much can happen between now and Tuesday. Including the (re-)discovery that the opinion polling is not an exact science. I doubt if that will be the case, but part of me is now fed-up with the over-polling in this election.

That means that maybe we should do an ATP poll of our own :-)

How will the results of U.S. Elections 2008 impact Pakistan?

• No matter who wins, things will become worse for Pakistan.
  48%
• A President Barack Obama will be better for Pakistan.
  29%
• A President John McCain will be better for Pakistan.
  8%
• No matter who wins, things will become better for Pakistan.
  13%

Created on Nov 2, 2008

Total Votes: 184

As has been evidenced in other posts of this blog there are Pakistanis who strongly feel that a President Barack Obama will be be more dangerous for Pakistan than a President John McCain. There are also many who think the exact opposite. And as the question in the poll suggest there may also be those who feel that no matter who wins things will get worse or, maybe, will become better for Pakistan.

Without losing sight of the fact that Americans will, and should, elect the President they think is best for America, not for Pakistan - and not withstanding my own expressed view that Pakistani-Americans will also be voting this time on their own domestic policy concerns and not on Pakistan’s foreign policy preferences - one does wonder how a new administrtaion in Washington (now that there is already a new administration in Islamabad) might impact Pakistan.

So, please do tell us what you think. And why.

Imposing of Democracy in Middle East

Is This Democracy ?

There is no need of Democracy in Middle East

Muslims have their own Systems

A Syrian diplomat called a U.S. helicopter strike on a Syrian village near the border with Iraq on Sunday an "outrageous crime," adding that Syria reserves the right to respond accordingly.

Eight civilians were killed in the strike, which Syria said targeted a civilian building under construction.

President House being used for a wedding‏

At Least 170 Dead in 6.4 Earthquake in Pakistan

Thousands of people homeless by the predawn temblor in the rural area, where many residents live in mud-brick homes that collapsed with the force of the magnitude 6.4 quake. Authorities said the death toll could rise as rescuers make their way to remote villages that had been cut off by landslides.

Even in good conditions, roads in the area are primitive. Pakistani army helicopters and cargo planes were ferrying in emergency aid, including food, tents and blankets. Medical teams were converging on the scene near the border with Afghanistan, but help arrived too late for some.

President Asif Ali Zardari ordered the national and provincial governments as well as the army to swiftly provide all necessary aid. The tremor was yet another challenge for his young government, which is struggling with a flagging economy, repeated clashes with insurgents in the border region, and conflicts with its American allies over U.S. military strikes into Pakistani territory.

The quake, which struck as most people were asleep, was centered about 50 miles northeast of the city of Quetta, the capital of Pakistan's impoverished Baluchistan province. With the chill of winter setting in, many of the survivors lost everything, including warm clothing, in the rubble of their homes.

The area was rocked by a magnitude 6.2 aftershock Wednesday evening, terrifying thousands of people who were preparing to spend a freezing night in the open.

In some of the hardest-hit villages in Zirat and Pishin districts, entire families were buried in the ruins of mud-brick compounds, and survivors were digging mass graves, using whatever implements they could find.

Aerial footage showing the epicentre of the earthquake:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7698260.stm