'Baghdad is now a battlefield, and we are in the middle'

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/cst-nws-iside22.html

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The Iraqi capital, on edge for months because of unrelenting violence, has shed its business-as-usual veneer and become a city at war.

Last week's U.S.-Iraqi raid on the Abu Hanifa mosque -- one of the most revered shrines for Sunni Muslims -- sparked street battles, assassinations and a rash of bombings.

The chaos has fanned sectarian tension and deepened Sunni distrust of interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a Shiite installed by the Americans five months ago. It has also heightened the anxiety of the city's 6 million people -- already worn down by years of sanctions and tyranny, then war, military occupation, crime and deprivation.

''Baghdad is now a battlefield, and we are in the middle of it,'' said Qasim al-Sabti, an artist who kept his children home from school Saturday, which is a work day in Iraq. When he sent his children back to school Sunday, the teachers didn't show up.

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[maddezmom]

1. headline should read: Iraq is now a battlefield , and we are in the middle

AGAIN" Mission still not Accomplished. :(

[UL_Approved]

2. The shit hit the fan

Good. Maybe the U.S. will learn a good lesson on conquest. This is going to look like the Tet Offensive in Viet Nam. Too bad so many people will die.

[rfranklin]

3. Freedom is on the march!...Lessons of September 11!...

Mushroom cloud!...Freedom is God's gift...Halliburton is our Savior!...and Exxon is his Prophet!

[amber dog democrat]

5. I hate to say it but we are the invaders here.

Stalingrad, Warsaw Ghetto, Dienbien Phu, peace with honor, body counts, victory just around the corner, and finally copters lifting the last of the last off the roof of the embassy in the Green Zone HQ.

after that a new wall or monument on the West Mall in Washington DC.

too bad they had to have so much oil.

[bowens43]

4. Nearly everything that those opposed to the invasion

and occupation warned about has come to pass. It's going to get worse. Even if elections occur there will be civil war. Death and destruction has become routine. The US will have to be in Iraq for decades. This was the plan all along. The US had no intention of ever leaving Iraq.

[leftchick]

6. I believe the 'elections' will exacerbate the situation...

just as the phony handover did.

[PA Democrat]

7. And sadly, there is no joy for us in being right

We will pay the price just the same as the war cheerleaders.

[IndianaGreen]

9. Actually, events have exceeded our worse expectations

short of all-out civil war, which will come after US is forced to flee Iraq as it did Vietnam. This is totally FUBAR!

[Lerkfish]

20. There was never going to be anything good from this war: the only ones

who felt differently were those who drank or were manufacturing the koolaid.

it didn't take a strategist to realize the problems involved in invading Iraq: all of us could have and DID predict it. Hell, my 6 year old could see it.

I can ONLY get worse from here on out. This is where I strongly disagreed with Kerry: I think the ONLY way to make it EVENTUALLY get better is to abandon it completely and allow it to acheive its own equillibrium.

[Junkdrawer]

8. Why, you'd think WE were trying to sabotage the Jan Iraqi elections...

Now, just because al Sistani was favored to win is no reason the US would start an inflammatory offensive to sabotage the elections, IS IT????

[Cooley Hurd]

10. Naw, the US wouldn't do that...

They didn't sabotage our elections now, did they?

Oops. They did sabotage our elections... my bad...:grr:

[cubsfan forever]

12. Unfortunately, I must agree with you assessment,

and it sounds like what will happen here in 2008. These fascists will stop at NOTHING, either here or anywhere else in the world, to further their "Christian Empire." It's sickening, and starkly terrifying. I fear for the world, not just the United States.

[donhakman]

13. support r petro expansion

[saigon68]

30. GRAPHIC PHOTOS CAUTION

To go along with the shrine at Mecca

Comes these photos of the troops not having fun for Halliburton, Brown and Root and Bechtel.



A dead GI from the Ist Infantry Division lies where killed in house to house raids in Falluja. As he
entered the house the home owner jumped up and killed him.


A dead American is loaded on the hood of a Humvee after being killed by a sniper in Baghdad.

[JNelson6563]

11. They will throw flowers at our feet

and welcome us as liberators! Footage of that claim should've been run continuously through the election season. Too bad we had a candidate who could only say he'd vote for this quagmire again.

<gag>

Julie

[The Zanti Regent]

14. The only flowers my Jon got was at his funeral!

I have never hated any man as much as I hate that bastard who sits in the Oval Office!

[cubsfan forever]

18. I am very sorry for your loss

it must be infuriating to see the Coward in Chief spouting his "war" rhetoric, knowing that your Jon was sent to war by one who never went. I lost friends to Vietnam and it is maddening that this COWARD brags about how he is a "war" president. I grieve for your loss, and the thousands of others sacrificed by the madman on the oval office.

[JNelson6563]

19. Heartfelt condolences

:cry:

I'm very sorry to hear of your loss.

Julie

[marew]

24. My sentiments exactly!!!

[fertilizeonarbusto]

27. Heartfelt condolences

I pray for you (Jon is in the hands of God, he needs no help) and I'll pray THAT THAT ASSHOLE GETS WHAT HE SO RICHLY DESERVES.
For you:hug:

[0007]

15. ....Why are we even there? I keep forgetting would someone

please tell me the logic? Do our troops indeed think that al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein were buddy buddy?

[maddezmom]

16. OIL and Halliiburton

oh yeah,must not forget.... freedom and democracy :eyes:

[0007]

17. For a moment I thought they were pissed at the Carlyle Boys!

[whosinpower]

21. With Allawi and Negreponte -

What else could we possibly expect????

[Massachusetts]

22. I fear the

worst is yet to come. Bu$cho has murdered our sons and daughters (of OUR military), as well as countless innocent civilians. He has humiliated our great country in the eyes of the world.

Why are there so many American brothers and sisters who are mesmerized by the Bu$hco cheap rhetoric and damned lies?:nopity: :nopity: :nopity: :nopity: Rome is burning!

[VegasWolf]

28. Yes, but marriage is safe from gays!! n/t

[Voltaire99]

29. "Why are there so many..."

Why are there so many American brothers and sisters who are mesmerized by the Bu$hco cheap rhetoric and damned lies?

Good question. No easy answer. However...

Try this: http://www.counterpunch.org/publius07152003.html

And this: http://www.counterpunch.org/lichtman07102004.html

[progressivebydesign]

23. Can any of us imagine the city where we live becoming that?

Baghdad was a city with universities, bookstores, a zoo, a symphony orchestra, department stores, hospitals, etc. It was a nice, modern, middle-class city. Can any of us even imagine our own city becoming that in a year? What kind of hell would that be? Saddam was a bad guy, but their lives were better under Saddam.

[Supersedeas]

25. Mission Accomplished?

[MADem]

26. More like "mission a codpiece"

So long as those in charge, the weecowboy and his trusty pal crashcart, have 'got some wood' (heh, heh, snort) then all is well.

The Bible tells us so!