[Daniel]

I really do.

This is what American forces are defending in Iraq? The ability of militias to kill gay and effeminate looking men?

I boggles the mind. It really does.

http://www.towleroad.com/2009/07/pap...-militias.html

Paper: Executions of Gays a Sign of Power for Iraqi Militias

USA Today has posted a frightening piece about the ongoing executions of gays in Iraq by militias hungry to show signs that they are still powerful despite U.S. and Iraqi efforts to banish them. Says Mithal al-Alusi, a secular, liberal Sunni legislator: "Why did Hitler start with gays? They are weak. They have no political cover. They have no legal cover."

An excerpt:

Sadrcity"The militias usually send out warnings before they attack. Posters go up in Sadr City listing the offenders — gay and flashy straight men — by name and neighborhood. 'If you don't give up what you are doing,' said a recent one seen by a USA TODAY reporter, 'death will be your fate. And this warning will come true, and the punishment will be worse and worse.' The poster referred to the offenders as 'puppies,' the fundamentalist epithet for gays here. 'In Arabic culture, if you want to insult someone you call them a dog,' human rights activist Yanar Mohammed says. 'If you're a small dog, you can just be crushed.' Among those listed was a young man named Allawi Hawar, a local soccer star who incurred the wrath of the militias by wearing his hair long and partying with his friends in Sadr City cafes. Hawar was playing pool one day last month when two masked men drove up on a motor scooter. One climbed off and made his way inside the cafe, clutching a pistol. 'We have something to deal with,' he announced to startled patrons, according to witness Emad Saad, 25. The gunman grabbed Hawar and dragged him outside. Then he shot the young athlete in the leg. After Hawar crumpled to the ground, bleeding, the gunman shot him again and killed him, Saad says. The militiamen pick their targets by entering cafes and looking for men who appear feminine or too showy, Saad says. Then they ask around to get the offenders' names, and later put them on the death lists distributed around town."