NYT,pg1: Iraq's Violence Sweeps Away All the Norms

[DeepModem Mom]

Iraq's Violence Sweeps Away All the Norms
By SABRINA TAVERNISE
Published: May 6, 2005


Christoph Bangert/Polaris, for The New York Times
Ansam Sadak holds a photo of Amir Ali Hamza, 8, her nephew, who was killed Sunday in a car bombing in Baghdad while watching cartoons.


BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 5 - The gardenias are blooming in Baghdad, but Hala is not allowed out in the garden to cut them. A 16-year-old high school student, Hala was kidnapped for a day in the middle of April and has not set foot outside her house since.

In the violence and chaos that has smashed so many lives across Iraq in recent weeks, there are quieter stories of people coping with the relentless barrage of car bombs and kidnappings that have become so much a part of the daily rhythm of life: the man who grows anxious in his car, after his wife was shot to death in traffic; the schoolchildren who no longer play hopscotch in a neighborhood frequently hit by suicide bombings; the young kidnapping victim no longer permitted a life outside her home.

The violence follows people to the market, to work and to school.

It has become part of the public consciousness, surfacing even in television ads and newspaper cartoons.

And Thursday was no exception, as the surge in violence that greeted the new Iraqi government a week ago continued with three separate attacks on the security forces in Baghdad that left at least 26 dead....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/06/international/middleeast/06bombs.html?oref=login

[democrat in Tallahassee]

1. Freedom is on the march or something.

[DeepModem Mom]

3. Indeed! nt

[leftchick]

2. 20 attacks a day in Baghdad alone

I can't even imagine how hard it is to live with that. The whole city must be shell-shocked by now. :(

<snip>

Hopes that the insurgency might be waning in the wake of January's elections have proved premature. It appears to have been retooling and reorganizing, launching a blistering wave of attacks that range from full-blown daylight assaults by guerrilla units to relentless terror strikes on Shiite and Kurdish civilians. More than 200 people have been killed in insurgent attacks since last Friday, and Baghdad sees an average of 20 insurgent attacks a day.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1057589,00.html

[Robb]

4. ...Including this one:

[saigon68]

7. Your pic won't load

[soup]

5. the new normal? n/t

:-(

[bemildred]

6. They need some of those laser guided bombs.

Then the NYT would have no problem with a bit of "collateral damage".

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. "has not set foot outside her house"

"Let freedom reign"

Oh, and he is going to fix Social Security too!