Along with a report that 110 had been killed in Iraq yesterday (WaPo puts the number as “at least 80 civilians killed“) including a Palestinian Journalist killed by US Forces from an Apache helicopter as the camera was rolling (video here), and at least five major cities now completely controlled by “insurgents”, things seem to be disintegrating there quickly.
Fortunately the Bush Corporation has an excellent PR department, so anything that gets through the PR filter to you and me between now and November 2nd can be assumed to be much worse than it’s reported. But, for those of us trying to pay attention to the black hole where we’re pumping so much blood and treasure, there are many hints lately of what’s really going on there (never mind Afghanistan which is similarly falling apart…not that it was ever “together” before we pulled out and moved to Iraq).
Here’s just a few of the items from yesterday in Iraq, courtesy of “Today in Iraq“:
Bring ‘em on: Thirty-seven Iraqis killed in Baghdad fighting.
Bring ‘em on: Three Polish soldiers killed, three wounded in ambush near Hilla.
Bring ‘em on: US troops launch offensive near Tal Afar.
Bring ‘em on: Four Iraqi policemen killed, three wounded in ambush near Mosul.
Bring ‘em on: Two Iraqi security guards wounded in attack on oil facility near Kirkuk.
Bring ‘em on: Five Iraqis killed by car bomb targeting US convoy near Samarra.
Bring ‘em on: Fifteen Iraqis killed in heavy fighting with US troops near Fallujah.
Bring ‘em on: Three Iraqi soldiers killed in roadside bomb ambush near Hilla.
Bring ‘em on: US patrol attacked by roadside bomb near As-Sina.
Bring ‘em on: Camp Zulu under mortar fire.
Bring ‘em on: CJTF-7 reports US troops repelled coordinated attack on Abu Ghraib prison.
Pay attention. This is still a hot war with injuries, deaths and attacks on US troops as high now as they’ve ever>/i> been! Bush/Cheney would very much like Americans to look elsewhere between now and November. Don’t be fooled…again.
Brad,
Thanks for posting this. I’ve been looking at that website every day. I have yet to see a conservative react to these numbers or images. Have they all gone numb inside? Maybe if we keep bringing it to their attention, they’ll finally see the light.
Ps. Happy Rosh Hashanah (in a couple o’ days). 🙂
Mrs. J – They were "numb" to begin with. In other words, they’re largely just brown people in another country dying, which doesn’t much effect their tax cuts one way or another. Those Americans getting killed in the bargain are largely the sons and daughters of *others*, many of them also various shades of brown, or not their own families, so why should they care? They got the Tax Cuts…that’s the important thing. It’s not as if they would volunteer to go fight and die for this "cause that they believe so much in".
(Thanks! And happy New Year backatcha! 🙂
Brad, I was afraid you’d say that (not the New Year part, but the rest). It’s the feeling I’ve been getting from these so-called conservatives. I just didn’t want to believe that they actually think they are better than others because they’re American or "white" or whatever they think they are…
And then they wonder why other countries aren’t impressed with them.