Baghdad Blast Ignites Fires in Historic Area-Cause Unclear; Top Cleric...

[truthisfreedom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40519-2003Oct30.html

Baghdad Blast Ignites Fires in Historic Area
Cause Unclear; Top Cleric Attacked in Karbala


By Anthony Shadid
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, October 31, 2003; Page A17



BAGHDAD, Oct. 30 -- An explosion rocked a historic section of Baghdad's old city Thursday, killing a person selling tea and setting fires in several buildings that burned late into the night.
<snip>
"We are watching our history burn," said Abbas Sabah, a 21-year-old college student. He was gloomy, and his words were bleak. "We don't have any jobs here. We're living like chickens, just eating and sleeping. Even food, we can't find."
At a nearby hospital, where eight people wounded by the blast were taken, Thaer Kadhim lay in a bed, his legs cut by flying debris.
"My country is so pitiful," Kadhim, 43, said, then started to cry. "We have no future."
"I'm scared of the explosions, I'm scared of what's ahead, I'm scared of facing my death," he said.
<snip>

[Sticky]

1. You can feel the despair in his words....

My heart breaks for these people.

[Military Brat]

2. I can't stand it, I just can't stand it

To say you have no future, that's almost like being dead already. Thanks, bush, for liberating the Iraqis.

[Tansy_Gold]

5. Is it any wonder that when people reach this point of despair. . . .

. . . suicide bombing seems a reasonable action?

Thank you, George Walker Bush, you flaming asshole, you imbecile, you lazy, disgusting piece of shit, you bigoted spawn of bile and vomit, you putrid excuse for a human being, may you rot in . . . .


oh, fuck, never mind.

[otohara]

3. Surprised The WP Has This Much Detail

regarding the "truly unhappy" Iraqi's. Doesn't quite jive with the glowing reports we've been hearing from Jr. and repubican's who recently returned from beautiful downtown Baghdad.

[Holly]

4. Wow...what can I add

just this. I really think that the PNAC gang want the Iraqi history to burn.They didn't care if it was looted and carried away. Wipe out the Iraqi's past and promote their evil agenda in the region. Every day just gets worse.

[Aidoneus]

6. there is some speculation as to the cause of the fire now

one assumption is that it is the aftermath of a resistance operation, another that it was an accident involving propane bottles.

Seems also that there are still no findings put forward on the recent attack on Sheikh abd al-Mahdi al-Karbala'i, the representative for Ayatallah al-Uzma Sayyid Ali Husseini Sistani. If nothing is found it will probably end up being blamed on Sayyid Muqtada Sadr, though that won't mean that his people are actually behind it (the scapegoat doesn't have to be guilty to be blamed, he must merely exist in order to be useful).

[radfringe]

7. just my opinion....

it's looking like the only "acts of desperation" are the ones coming from Baghdad Bush's attempts to put on smiley faces and salvage what little credibility they have left...

bombings/killings everyday, UN and aid organizations pulling out, still no plan for "winning the peace", some money and aid coming from other countries but basically the world community is leaving Baghdad Bush (and us) hanging in the wind