Violence 'out of control' in Baghdad -- 50 die in a day

[leftchick]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/12/MNGJFJTNBO1.DTL

(07-12) 04:00 PDT Baghdad -- More than 50 people were killed in Baghdad Tuesday in violence that included a double suicide bombing near busy entrances to the fortified Green Zone, scattered shootings, mortar attacks, a series of car bombs and the ambush of a bus with Shiite mourners returning from a burial.

Tuesday's killings, many of them apparently executed with sectarian vengeance, raised the three-day death toll in the capital alone to well over 100, magnified the daunting challenges facing the new government and deepened a sense of dread among Iraqis.

Many of the attacks, particularly those in neighborhoods primarily populated by one religious group or another, bore the hallmarks of sectarian militias, both Sunni Arab and Shiite. Militias now appear to be dictating the ebb and flow of life in Iraq, and have left the new government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and U.S. officials scrambling to come up with a military and political strategy to combat them.

<snip>

The worsening security in Baghdad and several neighboring provinces, which many Iraqis are saying feels like a low-grade civil war, prompted lawmakers Tuesday to summon the interior and defense ministers to address parliament on Thursday, according to Jalal Adin al-Sagheer, a senior official in the country's largest Shiite political bloc.

[Demeter]

1. Controlled Violence Is So Much More Palatable

It can be scheduled, regulated and taxed. People can project quarterly earnings on it. Families can plan special events like weddings and births in the intervals.

Sick, sick, sick.

[saigon68]

4. FREEDOM is on the March

[Tellurian]

9. CIVIL WAR...except no one wants to make it official!

Bush and Cheney are two of the BIGGEST embarressing failures
the US has ever had. They are a disgrace to the Nation and will
remain so until the day they die.

[leftyladyfrommo]

14. And their ratings are going up again- back to 40%

How embarrassing.

[Tellurian]

22. Depnds on who is doing the polling...their own say 40% more like 15% n/t

[saigon68]

21. Yes but their popularity is growing

THE PEOPLE WHO LOVE THEM

ADORE SHIT LIKE THIS

[bemildred]

25. Yep.

:thumbsup:

[izzie]

2. One would almost think they were in a civil war.

Not just every one fighting each other as the Am. stay in their green Zones mostly. Sending a few lower rates out to just get killed I guess.

[dailykoff]

3. It's supposed to look like "low-grade civil war," but it isn't.

It's Rummy having a field day. Midterms are coming.

After that he'll find some other reason to slaughter civilians wholesale.

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. In a country with only 25 million people

you would think the US could had least maintain law and order. Especially, when we're spending over a billion a week for this mess. It is apparent that the US does not want law and order in Iraq. They want chaos.

[rodeodance]

12. i think the goal is to lock up (or kill) as many as possible.

[bdamomma]

17. they are committing genocide

[leftchick]

19. I believe you are correct

and by that standard Iraq is a success for the PNACers. :(

[FreeStateDemocrat]

6. More in Baltimore Sun: Security in Iraq termed 'a failure'

By Borzou Daragahi
Originally published July 12, 2006

BAGHDAD, Iraq // Sectarian gunfights, mosque bombings and executions of unarmed civilians continued to roil the country as night fell yesterday, leaving at least 35 more Iraqis dead and 45 wounded in the capital alone.

The days-long upsurge in clashes between Iraq's majority Shiite Muslims and once-dominant Sunni Arabs, despite a monthlong security clampdown in Baghdad, has upended the city's 6 million residents. It has also outraged lawmakers, who have summoned the civilian heads of the police and army to the parliament tomorrow for answers.

"The security has deteriorated in a serious and unprecedented way," Kurdish lawmaker Saadi Barzanji said in a televised session of parliament, which convened yesterday in Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone. "The security plan has proven to be a failure." (cont'd)

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/iraq/bal-te.iraq12jul12,0,2036529.story?coll=bal-home-headlines

[rodeodance]

13. yes, a failure despite the US/Iraqi military crackdown last few weeks!!

[underpants]

7. Well so much for that "safer than Detroit" e-mail huh?

[Halliburton]

8. BUT ZARQAWI IS DEAD

and shrub flew into baghdad for his photo-op. things were looking up and a corner was turned. that's at least what the media told me.

[Arkansas Granny]

16. When you keep turning corners, you start going in circles.

[yellowcanine]

34. The fat lady with the flashlight at the end of the tunnel hasn't sung yet.

[tblue37]

24. Yeah--we were winning hearts and minds

and could see the light at the end of the tunnel!

[berni_mccoy]

10. It's MUCH safer there than here in our cities

Just look at our crime rates :sarcasm:

[rodeodance]

11. ".U.S. officials scrambling"---I would scramble OUT OF THE COUNTRY

[keta11]

15. Do you guys recall the hysteria that surrounded

the sniper shootings in the Washington, DC suburbs a couple of years ago when those 2 morons murdered 15 people over 6 weeks? How come people are not as outraged over the situation in Iraq (that we precipitated by the way) where 50 people on average are been killed per day? Where is the satellite tracking technologies, profilers etc etc to put an end to this horror.

[bdamomma]

18. People are desensitized, and Iraq is over there and not over here

that is the unfortunate thing.

[leftchick]

20. Juan Cole's report on the slaughter is a must read....200 Dead in 3 days

http://www.juancole.com/

<snip>

Over 60 Dead as Faith-Based Killings Continue
Kurds to the Rescue?

By my count, nearly 200 Iraqis have been killed in civil war violence during the past 3 days, dozens of them murdered for having the wrong religious identity (Shiite or Sunni).

The Associated Press reports that bombings and shootings took the lives of 60 Iraqis on Tuesday. There were more than twelve bombings, mostly in the Baghdad area. AP writes,
' "Suicide bombers struck across the street from Baghdad's heavily guarded Green Zone, killing up to 16 people - the deadliest attack in a wave of bombings and shootings that threatened to shatter confidence in Iraq's new government. In all, about 60 people died in more than a dozen bombings, shootings and ambushes - mostly in the Baghdad area, police reported. The dead included 10 Shiite Muslims slain by gunmen who fired on their bus as it left the capital for a funeral in southern Iraq, police said. '


Reuters' early report also rounds up some of the violence but the casualty count is lower than it became later in the day.

A lot of people in Baghdad, Washington and London are uttering a lot of brave words about this descent into mass slaughter. 200 Iraqis dead on the basis of being Sunni or Shiite is equivalent proportionally to 2,200 Americans dead, killed because they were Catholic or Protestant. September 11 killed less than 3,000 Americans, and the Iraqis are often having a death toll on that order every few days.

[maxrandb]

23. That just can't be

Some Republican Senator had charts and everthing the other day that showed me it was more dangerous in Washington DC than it was in Iraq.

[yellowcanine]

31. What he meant to say is that it is more dangerous for the TRUTH.

Truth being the first casualty of war and all.

[yellowcanine]

26. But it's NOT a CIVIL WAR so stop saying that. It is just people who hate

Democracy and they are not going to win. Why do you hate America?

[uppityperson]

28. It is not a civil war because neither side has officially declared "war"

I actually read this somewhere on the news, no link sorry. Idiots. Think they have played too many video games

[yellowcanine]

29. Not a CIVIL war because they aren't being civil. They are killing each

other. Not very civil of them.

[uppityperson]

33. That too.

[Yavin4]

32. It's Not a Civil War Because They're Not Wearing Blue and Grey Uniforms

Everybody knows that.

[JackDragna]

27. NO! This is a lie!

We're winning hearts and stay the course candy is being thrown at us! All of this is librul lies! BLBLBLBLBLB!

[yellowcanine]

30. And don't forget the FLOWERS. Lots of flowers for the liberaters.

[saigon68]

35. ROSE PETAL PARADES