IRAQ: Another Excuse Against Growing Anarchy
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“… Saddam was not related to the events of September
11th. But if you really believe that the only thing that happens on September
11th was people flew airplanes into buildings, I think you have a very narrow
view of what we faced on September 11th. We faced the outcome of an ideology
of hatred throughout the Middle East that had to be dealt with. Saddam Hussein
was part of that old Middle East. The new Iraq will be a part of a new Middle
East and we will all be safer.” – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Somebody get these people an shrink. We are way past the point where we need yet another new reason we invaded Iraq. Bush and his bunch need to quit selling the war and decide how we're going to get out of this war.
Gone were the American tanks that used
to guard the intersections. Instead, aggressive teenagers with machine guns
and shiny soccer jerseys ruled the streets. They poked their heads into cars
and detained whomever they wanted. There were even 8-year-olds running checkpoints,
some toting toy pistols, others toting real ones. Whatever they carried, 4-foot-tall
militias made me nervous. The streets now had a truly Liberian feel.The episode was oddly symmetrical with a moment in
2004 when mobs in Falluja swarmed four American contractors and hung the bodies
from a bridge. But there were a few big differences. For one, this wasn't
Falluja, angry heart of the insurgency. This was Baghdad. And these weren't
Americans dangling from rope. They were Sunni Arab Iraqis.(snip)
It's true that American soldiers are still dying, but
the focus of the bloodshed has changed.The day after that mob scene in Sadr City, bodies started
showing up, first a couple and then dozens. By conservative counts, nearly
200 civilian men have been executed in the past two weeks and dumped on Baghdad's
streets. Many have been hogtied. Some have had acid splashed on their faces.
Others have been found without toes, fingers, eyes.Granted, Baghdad is no stranger to the corpse. There
were assassinations two years ago, when an entire intellectual class was being
wiped out.But this new wave of executions was different. It was
more sadistic and less selective. These people weren't rounded up because
they were important. They were tortured and killed simply because of their
religion. And because most of them were Sunni Muslim Arabs, there was no response
from the Shiite-led government. … …
Redirecting
Bullets in Baghdad
All hail Condi's “new Middle East.”
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