Weekend of slaughter propels Iraq towards all-out civil war

[ECH1969]

IRAQ is slipping into all-out civil war, a Shia leader declared yesterday, as a devastating onslaught of suicide bombers slaughtered more than 150 people, most of them Shias, around the capital at the weekend.

One bomber killed almost 100 people when he blew up a fuel tanker south of Baghdad, an attack aimed at snapping Shia patience and triggering the full-blown sectarian war that al-Qaeda has been trying to forment for almost two years.

Iraq’s security forces have been overwhelmed by the scale of the suicide bombings — 11 on Friday alone and many more over the weekend — ordered by the Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Sheikh al-Sagheer is close to Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the supreme Shia spiritual leader and moderate who has so far managed to restrain powerful Shia militias from undertaking any outright attack on Sunni insurgents. His warning suggests that the Shia leadership may be losing their grip over Shias who in private often call for an armed backlash against their Sunni assailants.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1698308,00.html

[acmavm]

1. My only question is what took so long. It was inevitable from the dropping

of the first bomb during 'Shock and Awe'.

[NMDemDist2]

2. sigh

to be expected I suppose, still it's just freaking tragic

[Bluerthanblue]

3. this was inevitible, even shrub's

father had the 'wits' to see that-
which is why we need to get our soldiers out of ther NOW!!

There is not one thing they can accomplish there that will alter the outcome other than to nuke the entire country, and end the suffering of all, once AND for all- DAMN bush, for what he has done to these people, our people, and the entire world- he neither knows, nor cares about anyone other than himself-

may he live a LONG life, filled with many days of regret and torment.

[ECH1969]

4. Not inevitible

The Sunnis wouldn't have mass murdered Shia women and children on a daily basis like the foreigners are doing. If Bush kept the foreigners out of Iraq this wouldn't be happening.

[Bluerthanblue]

11. The only way bush could have kept the

foreigners out of Iraq, would be a continual military presence, and FAR greater troop numbers for an in-definate period of time... likely decades-

Saddam may have been a 'rotten' pillar, but he kept the country from imploding- we took him down, with no plan to 'hold' the crumbling country together- and every bit of blood and death, ours AND theirs rests on the hands of those who authorized, and pushed for WAR- without counting the 'cost'- and i don't in any way mean it in terms of monetary cost- which is nothing to sneeze at, but means so little in the end.

[Why Syzygy]

28. Wonder why

ole gwbuh refuses to fully equip our soldiers? Why does he insist on short changing vets?

I think there's more to it than just oil and $$$$$ in this quagmire.

It looks as though there is a "take the money and run" component.
Who is benefiting most? We know the answer(s) to that one. That's his history.

But at what cost? A US DEFEAT? This is not only an illegal war, as is often mentioned, it is an undeclared charade of one.

There is no intention for America's survival in gwbuh's book.
Is there?

Something doesn't figure.

[Bluerthanblue]

30. to be painfully

honest- i don't think he cares at all-
i really don't- i've seen people 'cry' when appropriate, and the minute the spotlight is off, they're right back at their same self centered games. i really hate to 'judge' a person this way, but i have never seen any 'genuine' love of 'others' in this man-
Even when he talked about the birth of his daughters, he said something to the effect that "i looked in her eyes and saw myself"-

Now, maybe i'm just in deep denial, but i looked into my babies eyes and saw someone precious, vunerable, and miraculous- each one an individual i looked forward to meeting, and hoping i could 'do right by'-

He doesn't have to 'answer to anyone'- he's said as much, and he has alot of 'capitol'- which he intends to use- he's used to 'getting his way' and 'getting what he wants' and worst of all 'getting out of jail free'- but eventually for all of us, our chickens come home to roost. And we reap the harvest we've sown....... it'll be a dark day for him, it will be REALLY "hard work".

i don't believe this man is mentally healthy or stable, and those around him are either inept or complicit- or both.

it DOESN'T figure- it shouldn't, unless we have 'his' mind.- And that is one thing i'm incredibly grateful not to have.

[okieinpain]

24. or if he had kept haliburton, and the rest of the bfee. if they had

turned over the reconstruction, and oil to the iraqi's some of their frustration could have been avoid. but if the bfee isn't in control they can't control the oil. oh well.

[BeHereNow]

7. Soldiers OUT indeed! They should never have been sent there...

...in the first place.

I can't help but wonder when America
is going to put two and two together.

-DSMs show beyond a doubt that we were
lied into this cluster fuck with "fixed intelligence."

-Wilson and Plame situation confirm and validate
DSMs. AND, prove beyond any thinking person's
doubt that this administration will lie and do anything
to fulfill the PNAC vision of global military dominance.

In the meantime, our sons and daughters are
in the middle of the hornet's nest that the Shrub
has repeatedly aggitated..."Bring em' on?"

I keep thinking about the day he made his
"joke" on national television about WMDs as
he pretended to look under for them under
imaginary furniture and glibbly quipped,
"No not under there...nope, not under there either."

It is all so outrageously horrific and the bottom line
is that more American service people are going
to die as a result.

FOR WHAT?

BHN

[Bluerthanblue]

15. i couldn't

agree more-
and his 'smirk' and juvenile, sarcastic 'humor' piss me off every time i see him- he is like an adolecent, (which is doing adolescents a dis-service) with the rude, arrogant, lack of seeing the concequences of one's actions, or invincibility- (sadly, not his, but the lives of others) that goes along with being an irresponsible, ignorant, teen- i'm a (single) mother of sons, one is 21, and he's far wiser than either of his parents were at his age-

bush learned nothing from his 'youthful' bad boy days, because he's never had to truly face the REAL concequences of his foolish ways-
yet- and i pity him, when he actually does.-

[gulfcoastliberal]

21. Sad that even dimwitted GHW Bush was smart enough to understand

that sending our army all the way to Baghdad would be a recipe for disaster. It's sad that so many dems think we should support * and keep our troops in that cauldron of hell - as if they are accomplishing something important being blown to bits by IEDs. Bring them home now!!

[stepnw1f]

5. This Is What Bush Wanted

Infighting... He wants them to kill each other until one comes out on top.

[gratuitous]

8. Mission accomplished, baby!

What did you all think that banner meant?

[stepnw1f]

9. We All?

By what do you mean?

[gratuitous]

10. My usual snarkiness . . .

Referencing the banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln behind Chimpy when he made his triumphal landing on the deck of the carrier May 1, 2003 to declare the end of major combat operations. It was in all the papers, as I recall. Surely they'll be hearing about it in Iraq any time now, and they'll just stop this incipient civil war and make nice because Chimpy said so. Right?

[stepnw1f]

14. Maybe You Didn't Understand my Question

"What did you all think that banner meant?"

You all?

[leftchick]

17. I knew exactly what you meant by you all

chimpy and the neo-freaks mission is indeed accomplished.... Quagmire Iraq for the next 20 Years!

[bloom]

13. That is what it would seem... eom

[LibDemAlways]

6. It's tragic that chimp still tells

bald face lies about "progress" in Iraq. Even CNN, which tries pretty damn hard to put the best possible spin on it, ran a piece yesterday in which an Iraqi man, who was no fan of Saddam Hussein, was now openly questioning US motives and policy, explaining that it is no longer safe for his children to even go to school.

With the cable whores finally jumping off the bandwagon and chimp's numbers in the toilet, those fourteen permanent bases may soon be a distant memory, along with PNAC dreams of global domination.

[SoCalDem]

12. We came, we saw, we created all-out civil war

All the chaos has resulted in our soldiers actually retreating to outlying bases and behind the ever-tightening ring of security of the "green zone", so is it any wonder than things are deteriorating quickly? The casualty levels were starting to scare the "folks back home", so our ,military literally retreated..leaving guardsmen/reservists to patroling the mean streets and try to train the Iraqis desperate enough to sign up..

A recipe for disaster..

Tanks, planes, aircraft carriers, smart bombs, dumb bombs..none of these will help us now..

[Straight Shooter]

16. Osama to bush: "Thank you, thank you, by Allah's greatness, thank you."

"P.S. We will come for more of your Americans as soon as the dust settles."

[donco6]

18. Bumper Sticker: Be Nice to America . . .

. . . or we'll bring Democracy to YOUR country!

[stillcool]

19. tell me again....i keep on forgetting....

why are we still in Iraq? Is it so they all don't kill each other? Can't be that. Its not the weapons caches that we allowed to be ransacked. It can't be for reconstruction, because the only work able to be done is in the Green Zone. Its not Sadam, Israel, 9/11, or the gassing of the Kurds, is it? What did I hear,... the charges brought against Sadam are from 1982? Don't they have anything from the Clinton era? Why does everything screwy have to always be about the Bush's? And lastly, where is Smedley when you need him?

[daleo]

20. Bush is getting his heart's desire.

Civil war, death, destruction without end.

[Carla in Ca]

34. Not his heart, deleo...he doesn't have one

But, as you say, here we are with civil war, death, destruction without end. And no one in this administration seems willing to come forward. Any second-guessing from R's is by promise of anonymity.
Somebody needs to get the '*ush looking for WMD's' video out, dust it off and show it over and over again until someone cracks.

[Matilda]

22. Hard as it is to say,

I don't think the troops can leave. It will be all-out civil war,
and most likely an Islamic fundamentalist regime will take over,
and we'll have to sit by and watch another Taliban-like regime
in operation again.

There isn't an easy answer, and Bush should never be forgiven for
going in in the first place (or his toadies Blair and Howard either).

It does seem that part of the current problem is that American forces
are bent on just losing as few of their own lives as possible -
understandable, of course, but without a strong presence outside
the Green Zone, they aren't going to accomplish anything.

What gets me is how they're still trying to talk up Iran - they've
learnt nothing.

[Bluerthanblue]

25. Matilda, i don't

think it will make any difference how 'long' we stay- it is inevitable that this nation, will determine for itself, what the outcome will be-
and they were put in this position by us-
Even as evil as Hussien may have been, there was stability- and there were 'rules'-

it is like having gangrene in a limb, you can wait, and let the disease spread,(killing civillians, soldiers, and 'insurgents') until death is certian, or amputate, leaving a crippled body, that may or may nor survive, but will never be 'whole' again.

i'm not one who 'waits' for what i KNOW is going to hurt like hell well-
it's rip the bandage off, dive in, pop the joint back in it's socket kind of person..... the slow suffering is unbearable......

we messed up big time- and there IS no 'making it right'- i think many of us knew that to begin with- i think most of us 'here in DU' knew that, - there is no 'happy ending'-

and i DO hate believing this- but there is no solution.

all the kings horses and all the kings men, can't put this world back together again-

[Tom Kitten]

23. All of this is the responsibility of the Bush administration nt

[saigon68]

26. "BRING EM ON" shouted the AWOL CHIMPANZEE

[Imagevision]

27. CIA said 10/04 that civil war could happen by summer 05

this is ancient news

[greblc]

29. What a FUCKING mess...

Pull our Troops out now and once the Iraqi's have had it out with each other. Give Mountains of aide for the rebuilding. They will never be ready to control their country after what we've done to it.

How could we posibly make this shit smell like a rose?

There is a warm place in hell for Bush & Company.

[K8-EEE]

31. Anagram Time

like they said in Daily Show...

Mission Accomplished =

C'mon, I Lied...So Scampish!

[dArKeR]

32. I went over there and found my son's head - Warning Graphic

"After the bomb I went over there and found my son's head. I could not find his body," said Mohsen Jassim of his son, 18.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050717/wl_nm/iraq_dc_185

[Mr_Spock]

33. That's just an evil photo caption

Just plain evil :rofl: just like dumbya!

[dArKeR]

35. This boy was killed on aWol's direct order. This is Saddam's direct

grandson. He was know to be in the building with Saddam's two sons when the Iraqi turned them in and told the US military. I have 100% no doubt that the American military would NOT kill Saddam's sons without permission from aWol. No doubt. Remember it was NOT a hot pursuit case. The US had their building surrounded for many hours. After aWol gave the kill order the US fired TOE type missiles into the home.

I'm tired now. You can probably find the story on google.

[Disturbed]

36. Iraqi Govt. signs Military and other Alliances with...

Iran. A fuzzy theory: Iran is comprised of Shi'ites. Iraq attacked Iran and fought an 8 year bloody battle and neither side won. Iran isn't fond of Sunnis. Most of Iraq's new Govt. aren't fond of Sunnis & vica versa. The U.S. and it's few allies in Iraq are busy killing Sunnis which is doing a favor for Iran. Iraq and Iran will fight the Sunnis in Iraq and also attempt to kick out all Westerners.

[smoogatz]

37. Throes can be violent--just look in the dictionary.

I want to know what Cheney's smoking and where I can get some--so I can feel good about Iraq, too!

[Supersedeas]

38. and suddenly the Media is interested in Hurricane season

in the Yucatan