Baghdad Erupts in Mob Violence

[highnooner]

By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: July 10, 2006

BAGHDAD, July 9 — A mob of gunmen went on a brazen daytime rampage through a predominantly Sunni Arab district of western Baghdad on Sunday, pulling people from their cars and homes and killing them in what officials and residents called a spasm of revenge by Shiite militias for the bombing of a Shiite mosque on Saturday. Hours later, two car bombs exploded beside a Shiite mosque in another Baghdad neighborhood in a deadly act of what appeared to be retaliation. A mother held the IV drip for her daughter, 8, who was wounded by cross-fire during street fights in the Jihad neighborhood of Baghdad on Sunday.

While Baghdad has been ravaged by Sunni-Shiite bloodletting in recent months, even by recent standards the violence here on Sunday was frightening, delivered with impunity by gun-wielding vigilantes on the street. In the culture of revenge that has seized Iraq, residents all over the city braced for an escalation in the cycle of retributive mayhem between the Shiites and Sunnis that has threatened to expand into civil war.

The violence coincided with an announcement by American military officials that they had formally accused four more American soldiers of rape and murder, and a fifth soldier of "dereliction of duty" for failing to report the crimes, in connection with the deaths of a teenage Iraqi girl and three members of her family.

With movement in Baghdad difficult after a military cordon was established to suppress the violence, facts were hard to ascertain. The death toll from the shootings alone ranged from fewer than a dozen, according to the American military, to more than 40 reported by some news services. The bombing near the mosque later claimed at least 19 lives and left 59 wounded, officials said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/10/world/middleeast/10iraq.html?hp&ex=1152504000&en=16036d2d3f3a77ec&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Redstone]

1. And we're surprised, because...?

Redstone

[benburch]

2. Can't imagine a reason why we should be.

This is only going to get worse.

[Redstone]

3. And worse, and worse.

Redstone

[uppityperson]

11. and worse and worse and worse.

Will staying make it better? Get out, call it a win and leave, start packing up and time to go home.
goodnight all.

[Redstone]

13. And yet worse again. Let's take our fucking ball and go home.

It's that simple.

Redstone

[benburch]

16. From your mouth to Dog's ears. nt

[TomInTib]

21. You are forgetting how much better it got after My Lai.

Yeah, man, turning more corners every goddamned day.

[Terran1212]

4. Why exactly is our military there?

Aren't they supposed to be there to prevent stuff like this? What do they spend their time defending, I wonder?

[azurnoir]

6. Themselves n/t

[Erika]

8. It is civil war and our troops are not kept in the loop

Who are they suppose to fight, the Iraqi Shiites or the Iraqi Sunnis?

[Jawja]

27. Yes. Why does

the press say "escalation in the cycle of retributive mayhem between the Shiites and Sunnis that has threatened to expand into civil war," when it already IS a civil war? :banghead:

[Monkeyman]

14. na remember Bush said 250,000 Iraqi are trained

In his mind

[Erika]

5. W's war: Killing them off with kindness, one by one.

Bushbots and Coultergeist in an orgasmic happiness as the "ragheads" are killing themselves off.

Unfortunately, the rest of us are heartsick at what our presence has done to the area known as the birthplace of humanity. And our military forces are in the middle of it.

[dweller]

7. "has threatened to expand into civil war"

Again.

i mean, Again?


GET OUT NOW!
dp

[Erika]

9. It IS civil war

I wish the dittoheads and bushbots would open their eyes long enough to check www.icasualties.org daily. They would learn why there is so little good reported in Iraq.

Baghdad is the safest area and the reporters were not even allowed out of their hotels today.

[Wilms]

10. Had we only seen this coming, we could have avoided going in.

Why, oh why, couldn't we foresee this?

:sarcasm:

[Erika]

12. But you know, the WMD's, mushroom clouds, biolabs, drones

and all the rest..... We just had to go in, there was no other rational choice. Bush 41 stayed away from Saddam for this very reason, civil war.

[rodeodance]

15. The violence coincided with 4 more US troops accused of rape/murder.

......The violence coincided with an announcement by American military officials that they had formally accused four more American soldiers of rape and murder, and a fifth soldier of "dereliction of duty" for failing to report the crimes, in connection with the deaths of a teenage Iraqi girl and three members of her family.

[Straight Shooter]

17. OT, but in response to your post. Now she's a "teenage Iraqi girl" ...

Well, that's better than calling her a woman, but how about the NYT sticking its neck out, telling the truth, and saying "14-year-old girl."

I'm not surprised at the violence. Appalled. Horrified. Sad, very sad. Not surprised. The handwriting was on the wall before we invaded. Little Boots didn't care. He never has. He never will.

[uppityperson]

20. and a 5 yr old child, Abeer's little sister was murdered too.

[oasis]

18. George Bush's war of choice is reaping death and destruction. "Purple

fingers" my ass.:grr:

[endarkenment]

28. There are many purple fingers in Iraq

Attached to purple hands attached to purple arms attached to purple torsos. The Butcher's Bill for Bush's War just keeps growing. Sleep well Busholini, you've started the next world war and all the blood is on your hands.

[daleo]

19. Where are the occupation authorities?

Aren't they supposed to be keeping order? Oh yeah, Bush created a disaster zone nobody can control.

[ninkasi]

22. Amid all of the carnage and violence brought about by Bush

Riverbend has not posted since 6-10. I worry about her, and her family. I pray that they are safe, but I worry. Bush will go down as the worst president in American history, and very likely the worst leader of a country. He's certainly headed in that direction.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

23. I've been checking her blog several times a day

I even e-mailed her, and let her know we were worried about her. No answer yet. :(

I don't think she's ever gone a whole month without posting.

[unhappycamper]

24. Escalating violence is to be expected when you OCCUPY a country.

The war ended in 2003. Our troops are there to OCCUPY Iraq while bu$hCo and friends divvy up the goodies.

I've stopped calling it "the Iraq war" and now use a more descriptive term - the Iraq OCCUPATION.

[deutsey]

25. Yes, but what about all the good news going unreported?

:eyes:

[RCinBrooklyn]

26. Exciting times in the "last throes" of the insurgency.

[slackmaster]

29. Brilliant strategy by the brave Iraqi Freedom Fighters!

Massive civil unlrest, just like the French Resistance!

They'll have the USA us out of their country in no time. Then they can go back to living peacefully among themselves.

[mhatrw]

30. More good news from Iraq!

[hedgehog]

31. What if "our" Iraqi government loses control?

Do we fight to restore them or pick up our marbles and go home?