Will Pitt: "Meanwhile, In Iraq..."

[Hissyspit]

(Sorry if duplicate post)

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071906J.shtml

Meanwhile, in Iraq ...
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Wednesday 19 July 2006

Every network television news program, every cable news station, every newspaper and every news web site has been covering, and will continue to cover, the horrific mayhem unfolding between Israel and Lebanon. Anyone seeking information on that situation will not struggle to find it. In fact, it has become something of a challenge to stay abreast of the continuing carnage in Iraq.

We still have tens of thousands of soldiers there. Nineteen of them have died since the beginning of July, and 2,553 have died since the whole thing started. 150 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the last three days, adding to the 6,000 civilians who have been killed in the last two months, adding to the tens of thousands who have been killed over the last three years.

So.

A few days ago, the UK Times published an article titled "Baghdad Starts to Collapse as Its People Flee a Life of Death." The author, James Hider, offered a glimpse of life within a civil war. "I returned to Baghdad on Monday after a break of several months," wrote Hider, "during which I too was guilty of glazing over every time I read another story of Iraqi violence. But two nights on the telephone, listening to my lost and frightened Iraqi staff facing death at any moment, persuaded me that Baghdad is now verging on total collapse.

- snip -

On the same day as Hider's article was published, Reuters came out with a similar report titled "Guns Galore as Anarchy Stalks Baghdad." The author, Miriam Karouny, describes a society that is arming itself to the teeth to try to avoid the daily massacres in the streets. "In Baghdad," reported Karouny, "it can seem everyone these days is armed, a mark of violence that is ever more anarchic and prompting efforts by the government, U.S. military, and even militia leaders, to curb rogue gunmen, especially among majority Shi'ites, who threaten what the prime minister has called the 'last chance' for peace. Some observers fear that a third, even more intractable, phase of the conflict has been reached, beyond insurgency and beyond even combat between organized armed groups: 'What we're now seeing has no shape whatever,' a Western diplomat said. 'It's just everyone fighting everyone. Anarchy.' "

- snip -

It has become something of a challenge to stay abreast of the continuing carnage in Iraq... We still have tens of thousands of soldiers there. Nineteen of them have died since the beginning of July, and 2,553 have died since the whole thing started. 150 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the last three days, adding to the 6,000 civilians who have been killed in the last two months, adding to the tens of thousands who have been killed over the last three years.

MORE

[Coexist]

1. I just finished reading this - knr

.

[lvx35]

2. That doesn't bode well (K&R)

''What we're now seeing has no shape whatever,' a Western diplomat said. 'It's just everyone fighting everyone. Anarchy.'"

I wonder how long it will take for "everyone" to remember life in peace under Saddam and start to direct the brunt of that aggression toward the US.

[Homer Wells]

3. Thanks for the Update

Been wondering what was going on in Baghdad!
Seems that new series, "Ass Kicking in Beirut" has lowered the ratings on the old series, "Debacle in Baghdad"
:shrug:

[johnaries]

4. there is a very fine line between Democracy and Anarchy.

I used to argue with RW friends at work that Democracy cannot be given to or forced on a people, it must be fought for and earned by those same people.

Then they would mention post-WW2 Japan, and I would have to admit that I had no retort.

Now I do. Japan was willing at least to embrace Democracy - having been defeated and recognizing that it was superior in some way. And they were willing to work toward acheiving it, as a nation.

Iraq is too divided. The only thing that kept Iraq together before was Saddam's Iron Fist.

That is not a good formula for a new Democracy.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

5. And meanwhile in Gaza - 15 Palestinians killed just today

We're hearing almost nothing about the second front in this war. But the killing goes on and mothers on both sides are crying tonight.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060719/wl_nm/mideast_gaza_dc_9

[Hissyspit]

6. kick