More on bombs and other stuff
Last Thursday that suicide bomber struck at the parliament buildings. Before that, there was a truck bomb that took out a bridge over the Tigris. Something that surprised me was the reaction of Iraqis I spoke to about that. To them, it wasn't any old bridge or just a means of getting across a river, but something more special than that. It had historical significance to them.
It was built by the British in I think 1920 and was damaged in 1991 by American bombing. Another bridge was hit by a suicide bomber on Saturday with 15 killed. Another 40 were killed in Kerbala, southwest of Baghdad on Saturday.
Yesterday 2 or 3 car bombs and a suicide bomb went off in quick succession in Baghdad, killing another 35-40. We heard the car bombs from here.
All of which raises the question, is the "surge" working? To answer that, I guess you have to ask what it is that the surge is trying to achieve. It certainly seems to be working in terms of reducing the number of dead bodies being found on the streets showing signs of torture. However, there are far too many car bombs going off now, most of which we hear. I've heard another few bangs this morning that sound like they were car bombs so no doubt there will be reports emerging in the next few hours about more today in Baghdad. It's hard to see what the surge can do to avoid that. The other, more predictable, effect of the surge is to push the violence out to other cities in Iraq. It's hard to see how that will all pan out in the near future. I think it's fair to say that, for now, the surge is working well in some ways but not in others, and in any case it will be another 2 or 3 months before it reaches its peak and can really be judged.
Also a few days ago a couple of UK helicopters apparently collided north of Baghdad. I'm not sure if I believe that's the real story. The amount of helicopter "collisions" that have happened here would point to pretty incompetent helicopter pilots being in charge of these multi-million dollar aircraft. I don't buy that generally, and even less in this case given that the helicopters were apparently there as part of a Special Forces operation. You wouldn't think the best of the best pilots are prone to mid air collisions.
Also I read that the official death toll from that parliament bombing has been reduced to 1. Excuse me? Reduced? When does that ever happen?? True, initial reports may have been exaggerated. But I doubt it. All the time there is such a big propaganda war going on it's often hard to believe what you read and you just have to weigh up the likelihood of things. They found an IED ("improvised explosive device") or roadside bomb outside the British Embassy on Friday too. Doubt that made the news. Soon enough though one of these things will go off in the IZ and you'll hear about it.
A couple of reports (from the Red Cross and the Oxford Research Group) recently out about Iraq and the "war on terror". This column highlighted nicely how little the neocons had to say about them.
Paul Wolfowitz, head of the World Bank, is in the shit because he intervened to give his girlfriend a promotion and pay rise that was "grossly out of line" with the rules. Hope he gets stuffed for that. He was one of the architects of the Iraq mess so it would be nice to see him get done out of a job I don't think he should ever have been rewarded with. Alberto Gonzales, the US Attorney General is also in the shit for his role in the firing of 8 prosecutors when they didn't act in accordance with Bush policies. (this is the man who said torture is fine) Slowly but surely, all those bastards that screwed Iraq, robbed their own tax payers and made everyone else in the world less safe are getting their just reward and being discredited. About bloody time.
It was built by the British in I think 1920 and was damaged in 1991 by American bombing. Another bridge was hit by a suicide bomber on Saturday with 15 killed. Another 40 were killed in Kerbala, southwest of Baghdad on Saturday.
Yesterday 2 or 3 car bombs and a suicide bomb went off in quick succession in Baghdad, killing another 35-40. We heard the car bombs from here.
All of which raises the question, is the "surge" working? To answer that, I guess you have to ask what it is that the surge is trying to achieve. It certainly seems to be working in terms of reducing the number of dead bodies being found on the streets showing signs of torture. However, there are far too many car bombs going off now, most of which we hear. I've heard another few bangs this morning that sound like they were car bombs so no doubt there will be reports emerging in the next few hours about more today in Baghdad. It's hard to see what the surge can do to avoid that. The other, more predictable, effect of the surge is to push the violence out to other cities in Iraq. It's hard to see how that will all pan out in the near future. I think it's fair to say that, for now, the surge is working well in some ways but not in others, and in any case it will be another 2 or 3 months before it reaches its peak and can really be judged.
Also a few days ago a couple of UK helicopters apparently collided north of Baghdad. I'm not sure if I believe that's the real story. The amount of helicopter "collisions" that have happened here would point to pretty incompetent helicopter pilots being in charge of these multi-million dollar aircraft. I don't buy that generally, and even less in this case given that the helicopters were apparently there as part of a Special Forces operation. You wouldn't think the best of the best pilots are prone to mid air collisions.
Also I read that the official death toll from that parliament bombing has been reduced to 1. Excuse me? Reduced? When does that ever happen?? True, initial reports may have been exaggerated. But I doubt it. All the time there is such a big propaganda war going on it's often hard to believe what you read and you just have to weigh up the likelihood of things. They found an IED ("improvised explosive device") or roadside bomb outside the British Embassy on Friday too. Doubt that made the news. Soon enough though one of these things will go off in the IZ and you'll hear about it.
A couple of reports (from the Red Cross and the Oxford Research Group) recently out about Iraq and the "war on terror". This column highlighted nicely how little the neocons had to say about them.
Paul Wolfowitz, head of the World Bank, is in the shit because he intervened to give his girlfriend a promotion and pay rise that was "grossly out of line" with the rules. Hope he gets stuffed for that. He was one of the architects of the Iraq mess so it would be nice to see him get done out of a job I don't think he should ever have been rewarded with. Alberto Gonzales, the US Attorney General is also in the shit for his role in the firing of 8 prosecutors when they didn't act in accordance with Bush policies. (this is the man who said torture is fine) Slowly but surely, all those bastards that screwed Iraq, robbed their own tax payers and made everyone else in the world less safe are getting their just reward and being discredited. About bloody time.
posted by symmetry at 1:39 AM
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