I’m glad the elections brought Iraq peace and stability and freedom, as one commenter claimed last week.
A suicide bomber killed 32 mourners and injured dozens at a funeral for the nephew of a Shiite politician, one of several attacks Wednesday across Iraq that killed a total of 52 people — making it the deadliest day since the Dec. 15 elections….
More than 100 mourners were standing in a cemetery in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, for the burial of a nephew of Ahmed al-Bakka when the bomber struck, the Diyala provincial police said. The cemetery was strewn with body parts and the tombstones were stained with blood.
At least 32 people were killed and 42 injured, said Dr. Firas al-Nida of the Muqdadiyah hospital.
Al-Bakka had survived an assassination attempt Tuesday that killed his nephew. Al-Bakka is the head of the local Dawa party, led by Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and a main partner in the country’s largest Shiite political coalition, the United Iraqi Alliance.
Things are now worse than everas bad as they were before. Only now, no one’s watching. The wiretap smokescreen continues to transfix the media and the blogosphere, and ironically strengthens Bush’s tough-guy image. Meanwhile, our precious little war rages on, and the elections bring us one step closer to all-out civil war.
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By Ed
Sad event indeed. Today’s technology makes it easier for suicide bombers to do their bidding, as well as coordinate anonymously.
However, I wouldn’t say this event indicates a progression to civil war. Unless we start seeing more serious problems, like part of the new iraqi army being loyal to different leaders, like when Chiang Kai Shek grew his army too fast and some had loyalty to particular warlords or commies from russia.
Hopefully Iran’s influence in this case will be less than russia’s in China’s case.
January 4, 2006 @ 4:27 pm | Comment
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By Johnny K
I’m guessing your “worse than ever” claim is based on first-hand evidence, right? It must be, because I imagine you’d be hard-pressed to find anybody (with the possible exception of a media-savvy Sunni whose hands you happly play into) who says things are now “worse than ever.” (a pretty bold claim, considering past states of existence include “war” and “far worse insurgency by any rubric.”
January 4, 2006 @ 7:29 pm | Comment
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By richard
Janus, all thinking people know things are worse than ever in Iraq as the country veers into an Iranian style theocracy that’s also in the throes of a bloody civil war. Did you read the letter from the parents of the slain soldier below, from the Washington Post. Read it carefully, maybe some of the truth will seep in.
January 4, 2006 @ 8:21 pm | Comment
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By lirelou
Richard. “Worse than ever” is a bit of hyperbole, and it ruined an otherwise acerbic, biting, yet forcefully understated lead-in. Take the hit, and move on. You have lots of other points to drive home which stand on firmer ground.
January 5, 2006 @ 12:43 am | Comment
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By richard
Lirelou, I’,m a reasonable guy. Instead of “worse than ever” I’m willing to make it “as bad as before.” Which it is.
January 5, 2006 @ 1:13 am | Comment
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By monocrat
Richard, not taking any issue with what you said about Iraq, but the wiretap issue a “smokescreen?” We have the (near certainty of the) president of the United States blatantly (without even a fig-leaf) disregarding the law—what strikes me as certainly a High Crime if not a Misdemeanor—and you write it off as a smokescreen?
January 5, 2006 @ 2:57 pm | Comment
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By richard
I don’t write it off at all, and maybe smokescreen wasn’t the perfect way to describe it. It has become a smokescreen – or more specifically, a deflector. Bush didn’t plan it, he was just lucky that the story broke just as the news from Iraq soured following Americans’ irrational exuberance over the Iraqi elections.
What Bush did was illegal and in times of sanity it would be impeachable. But these aren’t times of sanity. All bush has to do is hide behind the mantra of national security, and can do as he pleases. And since the Dems can’t get themselves organized enough to punch back and expose Bush’s crimes, bush comes across as seeming muy, muy macho, much more so than those bickering, whiny democrats. Of course, if more Americans understood just how dire things are in Iraq, Bush’s patina of machismo would tarnish rapidly. But luckily for Bush, the NSA controversy has created just the right kind of uproar, making him a criminal in the eyes of the educated inority, and a terrorist-fighting Rambo in the eyes of the ignorant.
January 6, 2006 @ 12:03 am | Comment
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By Other Lisa
Welp, latest AP poll shows American voters favoring Democrats in 06 by substantial margins – should those hold, perhaps we can talk about impeachment soon…
January 7, 2006 @ 12:41 am | Comment