In Iraq Today: Bombs Here, Bombs There, Bombs Everywhere...

[leftchick]

Another deadly day for americans and especially for Iraqis...



A boy wounded in a bomb attack near a courthouse walks with his brother after receiving treatment from a hospital in Baghdad May 4, 2006. (Kareem Raheem/Reuters)



Iraqis react as they transfer the body of their relative killed in a suicide bomb attack, outside Kindi hospital in central Baghdad, Thursday, May 4, 2006. A suicide bomber attacked a crowd of people waiting outside a heavily guarded court building in Baghdad on Thursday, killing 10 Iraqis and wounding 52 police said. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hato)



U.S. soldiers provide first aid to their colleagues injured in an attack on their armored vehicle in central Baghdad, Thursday, May 4, 2006. A roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy on a service road near the airport road. Witnesses said one soldier was wounded and evacuated by helicopter. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)



U.S. soldiers provide first aid to their colleagues injured in an attack, as smoke rises from their armored vehicle in Baghdad, Thursday, May 4, 2006. A roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy on a service road near the airport road. Witnesses said one soldier was wounded and evacuated by helicopter. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)



U.S. soldiers provide first aid to their colleague injured in an attack on their armored vehicle in Baghdad, Thursday, May 4, 2006. A roadside bomb hit a U.S. military convoy on a service road near the airport road. Witnesses said one soldier was wounded and evacuated by helicopter. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

The above photos are separate from this attack....

Two U.S. soldiers killed by bomb in Iraq's capital



May 4, 2006 5:08 AM

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - A roadside bomb killed two U.S. Army soldiers in Baghdad on Thursday, the military said.

The Multinational Division-Baghdad soldiers died at about 11:45 a.m. when their vehicle was struck by the bomb in south-central Baghdad. The identities of the soldiers were not released.

At least 2,409 members of the U.S. military have died since the war began in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564729173957280777

[ShortnFiery]

1. Tragic beyond words

:cry:

[BrklynLiberal]

2. No wonder the Iraqis think it was better under Saddam.

On NPR an Iraqi interviewee said, at least under Saddam if you minded your own business, you could live your life. The quality of life wasn't perfect, but at least it existed. Now, everyone is in danger on a daily basis, for no reason. There is no life for anyone anymore.

Iraq is being destroyed, while the US is building the biggest Embassy in the world. One that will be able to be seen from space. 104 acres. at elast $592 million. With all the amenites that are being denied the Iraqi citizens; clean, running water, electricity, security. Is it any wonder they hate the US?

In the Chaos of Iraq, One Project Is on Target: A Giant US Embassy
By Daniel McGrory
The Times on Line UK

Wedneday 03 May 2006

The question puzzles and enrages a city: how is it that the Americans cannot keep the electricity running in Baghdad for more than a couple of hours a day, yet still manage to build themselves the biggest embassy on Earth?

Irritation grows as residents deprived of air-conditioning and running water three years after the US-led invasion watch the massive US Embassy they call "George W's palace" rising from the banks of the Tigris.

In the pavement cafés, people moan that the structure is bigger than anything Saddam Hussein built. They are not impressed by the architects' claims that the diplomatic outpost will be visible from space and cover an area that is larger than the Vatican city and big enough to accommodate four Millennium Domes. They are more interested in knowing whether the US State Department paid for the prime real estate or simply took it.

While families in the capital suffer electricity cuts, queue all day to fuel their cars and wait for water pipes to be connected, the US mission due to open in June next year will have its own power and water plants to cater for a population the size of a small town.

Officially, the design of the compound is supposed to be a secret, but you cannot hide the giant construction cranes and the concrete contours of the 21 buildings that are taking shape. Looming over the skyline, the embassy has the distinction of being the only big US building project in Iraq that is on time and within budget.

<snip>

more....

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050306D.shtml

[Amonester]

3. They don't hate the US. Like most people in the world, they...

despise George Walker Bu$h (and his Fa$ci$t Follower$ & Enabler$).

[BrklynLiberal]

16. Yes. A much more accurate description.

[mdmc]

4. awful, just awful

k/r

[rwork]

5. George bush*

"Has to get on with the rest of his life." "I fixed it up with the National Guard to leave early and go to college."

[Supersedeas]

22. some things we should never forget

[sofa king]

6. Today could be Fake-Terra Day here in the U.S. as well.

I have a feeling that there is a Fitzgerald-related announcement in the works for tomorrow afternoon, and the terra-ists have a habit of causing alarm whenever Fitzgerald stirs.

Therefore, I'm setting today's Terra-meter at: probable warnings, with a possibility of MIHOP.

[babylonsister]

7. Thanks, leftchick. Again, this is something you're not likely to

see from the corporate whore media. :-(

[leftchick]

10. hell no

I only get the full picture from Juan Cole, Yahoo photos and Iraqcasualties. fuckin M$M! :grr:

[w8liftinglady]

11. Leftchick,this is an awesome post...would you mind

if I linked to it as I again shame these bastards who are killing life as we know it?What you have said in words and pictures totally encompasses my rage and frustration.Thank you for posting this.Get off your butts,the rest of us-these bastards aren't holding still waiting for us.

[w8liftinglady]

12. ..especially when they are already set on Iran...

http://www.amconmag.com/2005a/2005_08_01/article3.html
In Washington it is hardly a secret that the same people in and around the administration who brought you Iraq are preparing to do the same for Iran. The Pentagon, acting under instructions from Vice President Dick Cheney’s office, has tasked the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) with drawing up a contingency plan to be employed in response to another 9/11-type terrorist attack on the United States. The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing—that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack—but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.

* * *


_____________________________________________________

Philip Giraldi, a former CIA Officer, is a partner in Cannistraro Associates.

August 1, 2005 Issue

[leftchick]

14. go right ahead w8liftinglady!

I would be honored if you used it. My love and prayers to you and your son.

:hug:

[w8liftinglady]

19. Thank you,baby-I have included it in my email to all the usual players

[ArmchairMeme]

13. Boston on alert for possible problems with rail traffic

[bigtree]

8. that new leader they chose . . .

the meetings he had with the insurgents . . .

must not be the solution they were looking for.

I think Rumsfeld just ruled out any coming announcement about withdrawal of forces. They are being kept in an artificial bubble of militarism which is supposed to serve as a representation of Bush's resolve to topple the government of Iran like he did in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Hard to imagine that anyone who looks at our forces wallowing in Iraq will be intimidated at all.

The funny thing is that you can't really read where the Bush regime's breaking point is. Does their resolve lie in maintaining an image, posturing? That would make withdrawal impossible as long as the violence continues, unless they completely fudge the excuse for leaving, saying like, 'The Iraqi forces are standing up' (like the announcement yesterday about more ready Iraqi troops), mission accomplished.

Or are they just resisting every instigation to leave, determined as they seem to establish a permanent base there? That would make Iraq like 'Nam for real.

Either way, the idiocy continues.

[Gregorian]

9. One million dead in Iraq

Here's an excerpt from a letter I just got from Ramsay Clark.

"Thirteen years of sanctions, from Hiroshima Day, August 6, 1990 to “Mission Accomplished” Day “ending” the war of aggression against Iraq announced from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln by President Bush on May 1, 2003, cost Iraq 1 million lives, half children under the age of five. Iraq suffered near total isolation. "


http://www.impeachbush.org/site/R?i=axT4DplgX75tztww0H_S8A..

[Tulum_Moon]

15. Is that one million form

one George to the next? Are you referring to how we tried to starve them into surrendering.
Plus many more have died since May 1, 2003. I don't even want to think how many.

[leftchick]

17. here is a good place for perspective..

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11674.htm

[DrDebug]

18. So the number of deaths doubled

Because heart attack / stroke are pretty stable and violence is upto 51%. Normal rate would have been around 5 per 1000, so that would have doubled by now with 50% related to the war. 5/1000*3*26,074,906 ~ 400,000. The 100,000 figure looks like a conservative estimate.

[leftchick]

20. extremely

conservative

[leftchick]

21. There are some dead soldiers in those photos

CBS evening news showed this video last night. Apparently those captions are wrong. It is showing the aftermath of the attack where the two soldiers died. RIP.

:(

[Hubert Flottz]

23. You have to watch how you turn those corners over there!

Saddam was a bad man!