It wasn’t just the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad that was blown apart by Tuesday’s truck bomb. It was the long-standing hope and belief inside Washington that some day soon the reconstruction of Iraq would turn around from torment to triumph.
THE DEATHS OF AT LEAST 20 U.N. workers and Iraqis—including Sergio Vieira de Mello, the U.N. Secretary General’s special representative in Iraq—were devastating in themselves. But like all acts of terrorism, the political target was just as important. That target was the reconstruction process itself, especially the prospect that Iraqi citizens or the international community could help the United States in its grand vision for Iraq’s democratic future.
Onscene in Baghdad: 'I Saw Many Dying'
In the past week alone, terrorists blew up the water supply to parts of Baghdad as well as the newly reopened oil pipeline to Turkey. The former was supposed to keep Iraqis alive in the searing heat of the summer; the latter was supposed to keep the new Iraqi government alive with some desperately needed revenue. Earlier this month, another car bomb killed at least 17 people at the Jordanian Embassy in Baghdad. Like the U.N. offices, the embassy was another so-called soft target, with less security than U.S. installations. And like the U.N. offices, the terrorists’ political message was the same: Stop helping the Americans in Iraq.
http://www.msnbc.com/news/954662.asp?0cv=CB10http://darkerxdarker.tripod.com/ 
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