Relatives struggled to identify dozens of charred bodies from a fiery suicide attack on Sunday that killed at least 90 people in front of a Shiite mosque in Musayyib, south of Baghdad. Suicide bombings killed 22 people in the Baghdad area, police said.
A man detonated explosives strapped to his body late Saturday in the center of this religiously mixed town about 70 kilometers south of Baghdad, police said, triggering a huge explosion near a Shiite mosque as worshippers were heading to sunset prayers. The street was bustling with families enjoying a stroll in the cool of the evening.
It appeared the blast was directed at Shiite worshippers in the latest attack aimed at triggering war between Sunnis and Shiites. At least 156 people were injured in the blast, police said.
I think it's safe to dispense with all the formalities of speculation, and just admit that this country is entering the civil war phase. This is not Iraqis targeting imperialist running dog occupying soldiers, this is Sunnis murdering Shiites, and vice versa. The nature of the tactics precludes any formal declaration; there's not going to be any Gettysburg or Antietam. It's just going to be random acts of sectarian violence, perpetrated mostly against civilians, with the occasional anti-American pronunciamento from Zarqawi or one of the other bastards.
Musayyib, a religiously mixed town along the Euphrates River, sits in the "triangle of death," an area so-named because of the large number of kidnappings and killings of Shiite Muslims traveling between Baghdad and the Shiite holy cities of Karbala and Najaf.
On Sunday, four suicide car bombers targeted Iraqi and U.S. security patrols in the Baghdad area, killing 22 people.
The first suicide attack killed two policemen and one civilian in the capital's New Baghdad neighborhood, police First Lieutenant Mohammed Jassim said. Later, another suicide car bomber exploded near a police convoy in southern Baghdad, killing seven, police said.
A third suicide car bomb missed a U.S. convoy but killed six civilians in Mahmoudiya, south of Baghdad, police Captain Rashid al-Samarie. Six people were injured in another suicide attack in Baghdad, police said.
It's not just the massive casualty rates, but also the widespread nature of this thing. There's no one huge fire to put out, but rather a bunch of medium-sized ones all over the place. We could be playing whack-a-mole for the next generation at this rate.
I have a feeling that we won't, though. Given the intense unpopularity and futility of our campaign there, we'll probably start a troop draw-down next year, occupy the bases for an indefinite period of time, and just let them have at each other. Great plan.
It's a good thing Bush doesn't care about how history remembers his chronic mismanagement of this country, as well as the rest of the world, because the Middle East has a loooonnng memory, and 1000 years from now, Dubya will probably still be remembered as the Botcher of Baghdad.
[update: Thanks to Atrios for the link, and to all the Atriots for checking it out. Also check out the main page for greatest hits and Top Ten links, and spread the word if you like it. Together, we can kick the asses that need some serious kicking.]
12 comments:
With the American admin distracted by its own problems and internal enemies, and with the continued lack of practical sense it shows about the real Iraq, as opposed to Iraq the ideological punching bag, the "draw-down" time may be a lot closer.
Our Congresscritters here in NH (both Repubs) are running very scared. Gotta get out before Nov. 2006!
Our Congresscritters here in NH (both Repubs) are running very scared. Gotta get out before Nov. 2006!
You know, holding the military fighting the war accountable for every idiot statement made by Cheney is not intellectually honest.
But, keep running with it. There seems to be no actual debate, no actual alternative.
Unless you want to play the same gotcha with statments made by Kennedy, Kerry and Pelosi.
"You know, holding the military fighting the war accountable for every idiot statement made by Cheney is not intellectually honest."
And where, exactly, was that done in the original post? Oh, that's right. It wasn't. How utterly shameless and despicable of you. And typical.
Mitch is correct. People are not trying to hold the military accountable for Bush or Cheney's propaganda. Rather, conservatives are not holding THEM accountable, either for their prevarications about why we invaded Iraq, or why they didn't plan for an occupation, or why their pipedreams have gone so horribly wrong causing so many senseless deaths, in addition to dozens of other critical strategic, ethical, and legal questions.
You know, I wouldn't buy into the Iraqi civil war idea totally. A lot of that violence is probably terrorist activities (from our favorite country! Saudi Arabia!) trying to get at the US plus go after the Shias. Second, a great number of people in Iraq come from tribes (families) that are both Shia and Sunni.
There is a history of Sunni/Shia fighting in the Middle East, it's just that Iraqis have not shown this tendency in the last century or so.
I think a lot of the looting done in April/May 2003 might have been done by the Kurds. Now, there is a history of Kurd/Arab fighting. And recently the Kurds are fighting up in Turkey. I'm waiting for the exposives looted from Qua Qua (after the US went into Iraq) to turn up around there somewhere.
And I also think a lot of the Sunni/Shea fighting is US lead and inspired. Don't forget Negroponte's history in central America.
Appearing on "Fox News Sunday," Fran Townsend, the president's homeland security adviser, said that the war in Iraq attracts terrorists "where we have a fighting military and a coalition that can take them on and not have the sort of civilian casualties that you saw in London."
Yeah, that'd be a shame. If we had those kind of civilian casualties, you know, among like, white people. Fortunately those brownskinned folks aren't what you'd call people or anything.
"Anybody hurt?"
"No'm. Killed a nigger."
Mr.Murder
56 Died in London, the whole country came to a stop.
Nothing new to see in Iraq, move along... just more dead brown folk...
My sympathies for the Iraqi people. I want us outta Iraq for our troops' sake, for our nation's sake, and because I have 2 nephews (14 and 12) who I don't want to see drafted into the quagmire in a couple more years.
If they choose to serve, I'm behind them 100%. But I refuse to see them fed into a meatgrinder.
DrBB, great Mark Twain quote, by the way.
"Iraq is safer than Detroit"
Does anybody still believe this?
I think the "whack-a-mole" description fits this situation perfectly. I have actually said it several times, and I think, as most people understand the concept of "whack-a-mole", we should constantly use that term to describe the administration's effort and "planning" in confronting the insurgency.
Post a Comment