In Iraqi Hamlet, 'A Funeral Service In Every House'

[RamboLiberal]

Source: Washington Post

Khider Walli Ahmad has nobody left. Not his wife or his 4-year-old son, not his father or mother or sister. They were killed Saturday when a suicide bomber detonated a truck packed with explosives in a crowded market.

In the rubble of their mud-brick house and small shop, Ahmad found fragments of their bodies. His 69-year-old father, who sold cigarettes and dairy products, was closest to the blast.

"What was left of my father were bits and pieces, which I and some of the neighbors collected into a bag while we wept," Ahmad, 39, said Sunday, the trauma plastered across his face. Last year, he said, Sunni militants killed his brother Ali and his nephew during a pilgrimage to the Shiite holy city of Karbala.

"And today I lost all my family," he said.

In the Shiite Turkmen hamlet of Amerli, 50 miles south of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, grief and anger mixed with bewilderment in the aftermath of one of the single deadliest attacks on Iraqis since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Almost everyone seemed to have lost relatives or friends, if not entire families.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070800276.html?hpid=topnews

[Suich]

1. This is heartbreaking.

I can't imagine what it's like for the innocent Iraqis caught in the middle.

:cry:

Recommended.

[sleipnir]

2. Tragic.

This just speaks to the horror that has happened.

Why?

The criminals in Washington have allowed this to happen. Instead of securing the future and freedom of Iraq, they have only provided a haven of death.

[aquart]

3. We had no right. None.

What is the punishment for unrepentant murderers? Because this nation has earned it.

[arewenotdemo]

6. You mean Saddam's fate?

I'm sure the Chickenhawk Brigade would all meet their Maker with the same deportment Saddam exhibited.

[aquart]

7. I wasn't thinking of Saddam. I never think of him.

I was thinking of the United States of America.

[Quantess]

4. Terribly sad.

[emilyg]

5. so sad. R

[snappyturtle]

8. If the situation doesn't change fairly soon there won't be any people

left to tell the stories. Surreal.....and so terribly sad.

[Karenina]

9. And THAT, dear ST

IS THE PNAC GOAL.

[snappyturtle]

12. Oh yes...it is! Thanks for bringing that into the discussion. We

should never forget it....explains so much. imho

[bdamomma]

10. this is being done in our name.

when is enough.

[happygoluckytoyou]

11. TONY SNOW HERE------>

what looks like a tragedy is really a show of progress in iraq. the fact that this man was able to speak freely and openly to the free and open press about the fair and balanced deaths of his family is a sign to the president of the united states that the surge is working. presidential candidate john mccain explained to me that the freedom of one of the marketplace vendors whom he met on his famous walk through baghdad had the freedom to become a hero of the revolution and die freely for his country is why we are winning the war in iraq.
just yesterday while i was bass fishing with the president we remarked on how well things are going in iraq. the president caught a 40 pound bass, the biggest bass on record anywhere, and noted that had the terrorists won, the bass would have been much smaller. he mentioned over a cold beer that he feels for the pain of this Ahmad, a man he calls friend and sometimes calls "The Lone Iraqi" because he likes to name his friends. He also named his penis, The Dick Who Is Not Vice-President.

god bless america,

this is tony 'the snowjob' snow, reporting to you from the whitehouse...... without me, the terrorists would win

[ckramer]

13. Did these people overjoy when Saddam was out?

Do they miss the Saddam era now?