While the slaughter at Virginia Tech dominates North American news coverage, four bombs in Baghdad have killed at least 157 and injured scores of people today. Numbers are still coming in.
500 civilians have died in the past week. (Iraq Body Count)
…a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the Sadriyah market in a mostly Shiite area of central Baghdad, killing at least 82 people and wounding 94
…a suicide car bomber crashed into an Iraqi police checkpoint at an entrance to Sadr City, the capital’s biggest Shiite Muslim neighborhood and a stronghold for the militia led by radical anti-U.S. cleric Muqtade al-Sadr.
The explosion killed at least 30 people, including five Iraqi security officers, and wounded 45, police said.
…a parked car exploded near a private hospital in the central neighborhood of Karradah, killing 11 people and wounding 13, police said. The blast damaged the Abdul-Majid hospital and other nearby buildings.
…in Baghdad, four policemen were killed Wednesday afternoon when gunmen ambushed their patrol south of the city center, police said. Six pedestrians were wounded in the gunfire.
Other areas of Iraq:
…a bomb left on a minibus in the northwestern Risafi area, killing four people and wounding six others, police said.
…two brothers were killed and a policeman was hurt in a gunbattle in downtown Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, police said. The dead were believed to be civilians, caught in the crossfire as police fought unidentified gunmen.
Farther north, 32 mortar shells rained down on Iraqi army checkpoints in two neighborhoods of Mosul, 225 miles northwest of the capital, police said. Six soldiers, a policeman and a pedestrian were injured.
An Iraqi army officer and two soldiers were wounded at dawn in Tal Afar, 47 miles west of Mosul, when gunmen attacked their checkpoint, police said.
In the ethnically mixed city of Kirkuk, 180 miles north of Baghdad, an investigative judge at the city’s criminal court was wounded in a drive-by shooting, police said. Judge Ayad Ali Asaad, a Turkoman, was with his wife and a guard, and all three were wounded.
Over 50 thousand Iraqi are fleeing the country each month bringing the number of refugees to over 2 million. 1.9 million are displaced. - UNCHR
Tens of thousands are being held in the custody of the Iraqi authorities and the multinational forces in Iraq. At the same time, tens of thousands of families remain without news of relatives who went missing during past and recent conflicts. IIRC
Published 1 year, 5 months ago
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When I read this, I think of Osama bin Laden’s manifesto, which fits the picture you paint here. He is committed to restoring the Ottoman empire with Al Quada as ruling power, and himself as Mohammed or whatever it is they call themselves.
I read his manifesto, and it causes me, as an arrogant, irritating son of a bitch, to want to send many, many, many more Americans to the middle east, so that our friend Osama can never be done fighting to rid his “Islamic” brethren, whom he kills, to be rid of western influence completely in the cradle of God’s only true religion.
In fact, I hope one day to be called up again, just to hunt the men I once trained. Wouldn’t that be interesting?
And JD essentially implied you were a weak-faith politically correct wimp; the silly lad. Opps.:^)
I’m not exactly clear on what you’re saying here, Tom.
Do you want to send more Americans to their deaths? Who did you once train? Who is it you want to kill? I’m sorry, but I’m confused by your post. Are you American or Canadian?
Bene:
Where did I say anything about weak faith wimp?
BTW, 157 dead isn’t so bad. After all, we had killed 655,000 innocent Iraqis as of October, 2006. At that rate, we should be up around 842,000 dead now. No, 157 is no big deal, especially for those of us who are arrogant, irritating SOBs.
I did not say you said it, I said you implied it, it is how your comment beneath ‘read’ to me.
“Perhaps I’m wrong in assuming you are one of the PC crowd. Maybe I’m too sensitive, but certain phrases send red flags: “reality-based” is one. Tom Reindl’s post is full of them.”
If I overassumed, forgive me for labelling, butting in and misinterpreting your intent.
You’ve lost me again.:^)
“especially for those of us who are arrogant, irritating SOBs.”
Who are you referring to?
I can ask, you’ve been gracious in take time to clarify.
I see from your IP and email (in the template) you are in the US, so is Tom. He can speak for himself, his blog is Effortless Grace. He hasn’t commented here at BDBO in awhile and it is good to hear from him.
“arrogant, irritating, SOBs” is a quote from Tom’s post. I wasn’t sure what he was getting at.
I was being facetious, assuming that he was posing as an “American” or anyone else who wants to fight a hateful enemy. I also assumed that he thought Canadians feel that way about Americans, and that it’s because Americans are “arrogant, irritating SOBs” that we get into wars.
Did you understand Tom’s post?
ar arrr arrr!
That is Tom’s expression! Missed that. He is a humble guy, so I assume that is an expression of sorrow and anger wrapped in facetiousness.
Here is Bin Laden’s manifesto.
mideastweb.org/osamabinladen1.htm.
Do I understand Tom’s comment?
Not completely, I’ll drop him a line and invite him back.
It’s rare to have a careful discussion going and I’ve enjoyed this.
Your constitution says ‘we the people.’ I think most Americans see government as an extension of your citizenship, and I find southern neighbours personalize criticism of government, particularly the executive branch.
We see government as a party system that is fair game for pot shots, especially the federal government. While staunch party members may get hot under the collar, many of us just criticise the lot of them. Sport, like hockey.
There is anti Americanism in Canada, let’s not sugar coat, and there are pockets where hate is irrationally strong.
If a Canadian comes in and makes an anti-American statement I ask for clarification, but it hasn’t happened much that I can recall over the five years.
My blogging experience has been angry and sometimes raging emails from US conservative evangelical Republicans who assume criticism of government=criticism of them. Or criticism of religion=criticism of them. Wounded identity.
Oh, one angry Brit, over a tech program.:^)
For me to assumption all evangelical Republicans are angry is ludicrous and not even close to reality.
I have no idea why it’s just been religious Republicans firing off the emails, I honestly don’t get that.
If possible they get a none threateningly response. Anger and assumptions don’t leave room for dialogue, and my time and ability to defuse is limited.
JD,
I used the phrase arrogant, irritating, SOB because that is what I am, and when I see a tyrant such as bin Laden throwing an international temper tantrum the likes of which this world hasn’t seen since Stalin and Hitler, I want to spank him. I know America has great faults of its own, but one thing I hate above all else is the slaughter and torture of innocent people.
Do I want to send more Americans to their deaths? Not if we don’t have to, but answer me this question JD, did we have to send Americans into Europe during WW2, to their deaths, to liberate the nations that Hitler had overrun? How proud to be an American would we be if we hadn’t? We waited too long as it was to do anything; Roosevelt’s hands were tied by popular isolationist opinion. Are you now calling for us to become isolationists again? At what cost?
Why are American deaths more costly than Iraqi deaths under Hussein, or Sunni deaths under Shiites? Why is it so distasteful to Americans that our soldiers die fighting for the freedom of others? Are American lives worth more than others? Are we, the land of the free and the home of the brave, willing to let oppressed people die so that American soldiers won’t? Is that what this debate is about?
Tom Reindl:
I have apparently misunderstood you. I did not expect you to be in support of the effort in Iraq, based on my understanding of some of your previous writing at this blog and on Joe Carter’s. I wholeheartedly agree with your last post regarding American soldiers. I don’t think we should be isolationist, though it’s certainly tempting. I assumed that you felt like most Canadians about our actions in Iraq; that it was all about oil, imperialism, avenging an assassination attempt on George HW Bush, etc. It is obvious you see the enemy for what they are.
I’m curious about who it was you trained. Did you train Al Qaeda in Afghanistan?
I should add that I am an arrogant, irritating, son-of-a-bitch.
I was scratching my head about this, “I’m curious about who it was you trained. Did you train Al Qaeda in Afghanistan?” I was asking myself, “Where did that come from?” for quite a while until I actually went back and read what I wrote.
Here is what should have been there, “I hope one day to be called up again, just to hunt with the men I once trained. ” Of course, we could all go without our government’s knowledge and just hold deer hunting in Pakistan and Afghanistan this year. Deer hunting, Al Qaeda hunting, I really don’t see any difference, except I won’t be eating any Al Qaeda. ;>)
I hope I didn’t cause a big scare in you. I don’t know of nor have I ever heard of any American who trained any Al Qaeda anywhere.(maybe we should offer to train them, just to get close enough to kill ‘em). I’m sure CNN and MSNBC would love to have a story like that, but there’s absolutely no story here.
I guess if someone wanted to, they could view this comment as being very insensitive towards other human beings (Al Qaeda are people, too), and I try sometimes very hard to swallow the anger I feel over seeing people who can’t defend themselves being oppressed and murdered, because that anger is what leads to comments like these. I want there to be peace in this world, and I want our government to stop bickering over politics, and to start seeing the Iraqi people and our soldiers as PEOPLE, not as political capital. I want the world community to to stop hiding inside of shells whenever we see oppression and act as if a “sovereign nation” has the right to treat it’s citizens in any way they want to.
Personally, I thought, I hoped, I believed that we had destroyed that stone age cold heartedness when we did away with Hitler.
SO to be clear, in Iraq, there is only one issue. That issue is not that America is there, or that Saddam Hussein is dead, or that the “war” should never have been started. The issue isn’t what the media LIKES to call “Civil War” Civil wars require two sides, two combating sides. We don’t have that in Iraq. This is the issue: Peace loving free citizens in Iraq are being Oppressed by Al Qaeda and religious fanatics; that’s your civil war, that’s the only issue going on in Iraq right now.
People can cry foul and they can say we need to pull out or that shouldn’t be there; but no matter what you say, you can’t get around the real issue. People are dying, being tortured, robbed, raped, and beheaded. These people are DEFENSELESS. Anyone who can walk away from defenseless people, and allow them to be slaughtered without check has somehow disconnected themselves from compassion. This “war” may be political in the media and with our idiot politicians, but to real people like me and you, it’s about the people who cannot defend themselves. If we walk away from them, then the USA has become morally bankrupt and is without a leg to stand on in regards to human rights.
I can’t believe my own country, and freely elected politicians are suggesting that we abandon the Iraqi people to torture and oppression. That’s the real issue. We wouldn’t put up with it in our country, in fact, 9/11 made us pissed as hell because so many innocent people were killed. I say, if free Iraqi people being killed by terrorists and Al Qaeda doesn’t piss one off just as much as 9/11 did, then one has no right to be pissed off about 9/11 either.
We can dance around the real issue forever, and nothing would please the media more. But let’s face it and finish it, that’s what I say. You can’t expect Al Qaeda to respect freedom and human rights if in the first chance you have to defend human beings against them, you run away and leave the sheep to the slaughter.
Hi Tom, I am going to butt in here.
In 1979 the CIA was authorized by President Jimmy Carter to begin covert operations in the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
The fighters were called ‘resistance’ now called Taliban and Al Queda. The US through Saudi Arabi had supplied 5 thousand missles. By the mid 1980’s assistance from the US had increased (example: Operation Cyclone)
Then President Ronald Regan encouraged the involvement of Arab Muslims including Osama Bin Laden whose fighters eventually became what is now called Al Qaeda.
The US Special Forces were involved. After the withdrawal of the Soviets the civil war continued.
In 1992 about 8 thousand Afghanistan National Army deserted, having been trained by US, British, New Zealand, France and Germany, New Zealand, France and Germany.
ANA deserters took their equipment with them. Desertion remains an ongoing problem for Nato and the US.
Has the US military trained Al Queda?
Yes.
Does the State Department deny that?
Yes.
http://usinfo.state.gov/media/Archive/2005/Jan/24-318760.html
Thanks, Tom. You have cleared up my confusion. I also agree wholeheartedly with what you wrote regarding the war in Iraq. I think what started the whole confusion was your reaction to Joe Carter’s post about blogs against theocracy and your appearance on this blog. It’s obvious that BD has a different point of view than I on most issues. I assumed you were the same.
And, guess what? I’m not at all surprised at what BD wrote in the next comment. We’re supposed to be morally outraged that the US was involved in training Al Qaeda. In retrospect, it IS outrageous. But at the time, it was simply the enemy of our enemy is our friend.
JD, I cannot make you feel anything.
No one can make you feel something, that’s giving a person power that does not belong to them. There is no ’supposed to.’
I think that is rather disingenuous of you, BD. What is your purpose for writing then? When I write, I am absolutely trying to make you think about something in order to change your feelings or vice versa. Are you telling me your purpose here is to simply report the news? Just the facts, ma’am? I don’t believe that for one second. In view of that what exactly are you telling me with your last comment?
And what exactly are you saying then, in the comment about US training Al Qaeda?
“And what exactly are you saying then, in the comment about US training Al Qaeda?”
Tom said #11: “I don’t know of nor have I ever heard of any American who trained any Al Qaeda anywhere.”
That’s an honest statement, he hasn’t heard, doesn’t know.
I responded with US involvement in Afghanistan prior to current UN involvement. I also provided the US State Department official position: take it or leave it; rebut it, express opinion, feelings, thoughts, facts, whatever you wish.
If in this discussion you’ve found a blogger you may enjoy, it’s been my pleasure to pass on the link to Tom’s blog.
“When I write, I am absolutely trying to make you think about something in order to change your feelings or vice versa. ”
Good for you, that’s a reason to write.
You can’t make me feel JD.
I will feel, but not because you ‘make’ me, I feel because I am a human being.
How I process and express those feelings is important to me.
What is also important is figuring out what I think in a discussion, and whether I’m going to join in.
Listening is a critical process in a blog comment section, I enjoy the challenge and the journey.
Wanting to make choices to express my thoughts and feelings in conversation with integrity and respect - regardless of how hot button the topic is a goal. Disagreement and different points of view are not threats or perceived threats.
If you feel that is willfully disingenuous, that’s fine.
BD,
Thanks for the info. Technically speaking, if what you said is true, then still, no American ever trained AL Qaeda. What we trained may have turned into Al Qaeda, but that is a whole different thing, and one could take Al Qaeda to task every bit as much as one could take the US to task; especially if the Muslims knew that Al Qaeda had actually accepted, and been subservient to US wishes. I wonder what Al Jazeera would have to say about that? I wonder what the Muslim world would say if they realized that Osama bin Laden was nothing more than an American lackey? Maybe we ought to be publicizing the fact that we trained him. Use it in a way bin Laden would never expect, to turn his own people against him.
Anyway, I was under the impression that it was the Northern Alliance who had been under our guidance, and who had broken off with bin Laden and The Taliban after the Russian occupation ended, once they realized that life under The Taliban wasn’t going to resemble their idea of government.
Al Jazeera is a network of TV speciality channels.
It was launched with 150 million dollar grant from the US.
They run sports, children’s programming, a documentary channel, news. Different languages in various regions including english and they are expanding. So is Al Arabiya and Al Alam.
I don’t know what they’d say.
Assuming they are a propaganda machine is like saying CNN is.
Saudi Arabia is far more suspicious of Al Jazeera than the west is, and we know there have been flat out lies about what their news division has broadcast.
Technically yes, and I will acquiesce to your knowledge because this isn’t something I’ve studied.
The Northern Alliance was a group of warlords holding on to 10 percent of their country from 1996 when the Taliban took over. They would have attempted to take Kabul with or without the blessing of the US.
Being under anyone’s guidance is an interesting way of defining them.
Bene,
“Assuming they are a propaganda machine is like saying CNN is”
CNN is a propaganda machine, as is every major news network. It just depends on what propaganda they are selling. They certainly don’t exist to tell the truth; they exist to make money. Individuals within these organizations may hold that the truth isn’t for sale, but the corporations themselves are a whole different animal. That’s why death and destruction make the headlines more often and much more quickly than any good news. Bad news sells, which is a reflection on humanity’s weird interests; but if an alien were to watch our news programs and read our newspapers, the image he would come away with would be of a species that experiences mostly evil and very, very little good.
By the way, the reason the US would never admit they trained or participated in the Afghanistan war with the USSR is simple; supplying the rebels was expected, but fighting with them against Russian soldiers was taboo, at least in the open. Same goes for Russian aid to North Korea and also the Viet Nam conflict. Supply is understood, but actual battle contact is taboo. Can you imagine if at the time of these wars, the press got hold of info stating that the two major powers were directly fighting each other in someone else’s war? It would have started the third world war immediately.
Some things need to kept secret, especially considering the press’ penchant for sensationalism. That, and the press’ ability to spell out for our enemies exactly what our weaknesses are, such as numerous articles and television specials right after 9/11. Can you imagine the Romans ever telling their enemies, “Boy, if the enemy hits us in our food supply, we’re screwed. Or, if they want to smuggle dirty bombs into our country, here’s how they could accomplish it.”
The American media is a propaganda machine, Bene. Therefore, I assume Al Jazeera is as well. That’s just my opinion, but I base my opinion on what I observe, and I have observed far too often the media’s bent toward making a story bigger than it really is, or more devastating than facts depict.
Good day to you.
I know.
You’ve hit close to home, broadcast journalism put food on my table.
I don’t operate under any illusions about ‘if it bleeds it leads’ Tom, but I have a great deal of difficulty with all or nothing thinking when it comes to media. I don’t operate under any illusions news can desensitize and collectively screw up be it print or broadcast.
I’ve known too many good people, worked with people that you might chose to label as propaganda pushers, that I know for a fact are not.
I know all too well and all too personally what it’s like when the messenger gets shot.
Have I seen the pack mentality? Sure. Been trampled in it. Have I seen news become commercialized and a board room dictate cut backs and stories? Yes.
But I cannot and will not say that every news outlet and it’s employees is a propaganda machine.
My real father was a war correspondant. My grandfather was the editor a fair sized paper here in Canada. I didn’t know that when I chose my profession, or rather, it chose me.
There are a lot of ethical people in the business. I hope I’ve been one of them.
I can’t help the fact the US government decides to fund a news outlet and then starts it’s own propaganda when the newsies don’t play by the White House’s rules or dance to the politicans tune. I applaud them.
Does Al Jazeera have world class journalists working for it? Yes it does, western sensibilities aside. It does. And I believe they need the freedom to operate in as many languages as they can.
I don’t think the public is stupid. I think you can put information out there, I think it is imperative to put information out, whether it goes down easy or not.
And I don’t believe the media is needed to signal weaknesses of any nation to ‘the enemy.’
That’s just my opinion.:^)
Bene,
I am sure there are many, many excellent, upstanding journalists in your field. In fact, I’d go so far as to say most of them are honest, and compassionate. My trouble lies with the corporate aspects of journalism. Maybe there are even some good companies out there, but when money dictates what makes the news, you can be sure that the truth will always play second fiddle. The American major news medias project themselves as a public service, as well as being non-biased. This is a lie. Individuals are such, but corporations are not.
Unfortunately, for the good ones like you, the corporations have placed you in a prison of their own design, Like me, you have to earn a living, and that means you probably have to work for a group of investors or owners who don’t always see things the way you do. I’ve known for a long while now that you place a higher value on truth in reporting than on your own image. I just wish it was more widespread.
Thanks Bene.