The MESSAGE behind the factory kidnapping.

[benburch]

It is clear that;

1. All of these people are probably dead already.

2. This was to send a message; Collaborators are not safe.

We are now in a full-scale civil war against the occupation government. It is only going to get worse from here on.

[kentuck]

1. If there was any doubt about a civil war....

This should erase those doubts..

[saigon68]

16. No doubts here

[im10ashus]

2. But, but, wait!!!

Isn't THIS the last throes of the insurgency? :sarcasm:

[robbedvoter]

3. Nah, it's that corner we just turned!

[im10ashus]

7. That one called freedom?

:-)

[Beelzebud]

8. That was our fourth corner. Otherwise known as a circle!

Around and around we go.

[TahitiNut]

14. It's a quadrilateral ... better than unilateral or bilateral, right?

:dunce: :rofl:

[SammyWinstonJack]

28. I thought it was the turning tides in the desert?

:shrug:

[Virginia Dare]

4. The death of Zarqawi was apparently a turning point...

but not a good one. It is clear that things are going from bad to worse.

[soothsayer]

19. yeah, more like tipping point

[Hubert Flottz]

5. What Iraq needs is a tax cut!

[Cha]

11. And repeal the

Death tax!

[Hubert Flottz]

22. That would REALLY come in handy there...

and it would be something positive, for the GOP to report to their baser base!

I'm guessing that the media ran out of good things to report from Iraq, a long time ago.

[NYC]

6. Why do you presume they are dead,

instead of being held for ransom?

[benburch]

10. You cannot hide 100 people and hold them for ransom.

Just simply impossible, especially where there are helicopters with heat sensors that can see through roofs and walls.

[NYC]

13. Okay, I guess the helicopters would do it.

Otherwise, I would think you could just drive the bus to the middle of nowhere, and wait.

I wonder what people in Iraq are supposed to do. If they work, they are at risk of getting killed. If they don't work, do landlords evict people for nonpayment of rent? (Or banks foreclose on late mortgages.) Would people starve to death if they didn't work? Are they forced out into the chaos in search of a living?

I'm seriously wondering about the eviction part.

[benburch]

18. I think the issue here is that it is a state run factory...

Which is why I think it is a message.

But yeah, it SUCKS to be there and trying to earn a living, I am quite sure.

[Techno Dog]

29. What?

Beslan?

If they were being held for ransom, knowing where they are isn't isgoing to save them. It is useless unless you are saying the US military would just blow up where ever they were hiding without concern about killing the hostages.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. Assuming it's the insurgents.

The "Iraqi police" under the "coalition government" are known for mass kidnappings as well.

[benburch]

12. Good point.

But it is a government factory.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

20. And?

You don't think the government's going to have its own competing factions?

[kentuck]

15. Does that mean it's now time to "execute" Saddam ??

That'll teach 'em...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

21. It's too far from the midterms.

That will be in November.

[Swede]

17. One day they killed a bunch of garbage collectors,another some bakers.

This doesn't happen in a infant democracy,it happens in the chaos before an open civil war.

[Igel]

23. "Collaborator" is too strong a term here.

Iraq was fairly socialist under Saddam. They made consumer products, not military ones.

Partisans properly kill important collaborators, not everybody that could possibly be construed as one. Dogcatchers, street cleaners, and postal carriers are hardly the prototypical 'collaborator'. Although, in this case, they seem to be. But not only Shi'a that are collaborators in even this strong a sense are targeted.

However, not all collaborators are equally targeted. Trivially-ranked Sunni collaborators, well, they need to eat. High-ranking ones that are important, they're targeted. They need to die.

The appropriate message is, "Die Shi'a, Die."

Killing collaborators provides some sort of moral justification, albeit implicit. I am not going to justify such a weak attempt at such a weak justification of intended genocide.

[benburch]

24. They want us to think that it is all Shi'a vs Sunni.

But I think that is just propaganda. They hate each other, but it is the occupation government, and the occupiers, that they hate most.

[helderheid]

25. I missed this - link?

[benburch]

26. Here...

http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=275100&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/

[BeHereNow]

27. Your post is connected to why I am bemoaning the senate debate today...

The whole idea of a debate on the future of Iraq was just
too depressing to me because of the banality of
the senate to pretned that withdrawing troops was even
a remote possibilty- not with their monstrosity of an
Embassy being built there. The embassy is the largest
US embassy in the world, a minature city within the city actually.
With stories like the one you just posted, HOW is it even remotely
possible to think that the US has any intention of withdrawing the troops?
The corpwatch link I posted in another thread talks about the fact
that anyone working with/for the US is now a target.
Can anyone explain to me how this embassy will function withOUT
massive US troop protection?
that is why I called the entire debate a farce.
God help those poor people and our troops.
They are caught in the machinations of the
most evil empire ever.
As are we, the people.
BHN