U.S. instantly politicizes 500 Iraqi dead
Well, at least 500 Iraqis didn’t die in vain. From their deaths, more death can come, as the U.S. was using the recent massive car bomb attacks for political purposes even before the last bits of Iraqi flesh hit the ground.
‘Iraqi officials: Truck bombings killed at least 500′
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — The death toll in the suicide bombings Tuesday in northern Iraq has risen to at least 500, local officials in Nineveh province said Wednesday.
Iraqi Army and Mosul police sources earlier put the number at 260, but said it was likely to rise. 320 were reported wounded.
The Tuesday truck bombs that targeted the villages of Qahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair, in northern Iraq near the border with Syria, were a “trademark al Qaeda event” designed to sway U.S. public opinion against the war, a U.S. general said Wednesday.The attacks, targeting Kurdish villages of the Yazidi religious minority, were attempts to “break the will” of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation — the “surge” — is failing, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon said.
The bombings highlight the kind of sectarian tensions the troop surge was designed to stop.
Al Qaeda in Iraq is predominantly Sunni, and Mixon said members of the Yazidi religious minority have received threatening letters, called “night letters,” telling them “to leave because they are infidels.”
“This is an act of ethnic cleansing, if you will — almost genocide when you consider the fact the target they attacked and the fact that these Yazidis, out in a very remote part of Nineveh province, where there is very little security and really no security required to this point,” Mixon said.
The massacre comes ahead of next month’s report to Congress by Gen. David Petraeus and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker on progress in Iraq.
“We still have a great deal of work to do against al Qaeda in Iraq, and we have great deal of work to do against al Qaeda networks in northern Iraq,” Brig. Gen. Kevin Bergner, a Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman, said Wednesday.
The office of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki blamed Sunni extremists for the “monstrous crime.” He said a committee has been formed to investigate.
–WKW
August 15th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Glad to see you are also on top of this despicable display by this administration. I’m most offended by their use of the word genocide. This was in no way a genocide and if our military officials don’t know the difference, we are in a world of trouble.
There was a fairly stomach turning piece done of Lou Dobbs tonight. It’s worth checking out if your stomach can handle it
August 15th, 2007 at 7:16 pm
As opposed to anti-war liberals instantly politicizing dead U.S. troops, right?
August 16th, 2007 at 9:04 am
Jason,
So you’re pro-war? You’re content to bankrupt your country while destroying another? On what track record of anything other than dismal murderous failure in Iraq are you trusting the Bush administration?
As long as we are there, Iraqis will be fighting each other AND us to determine their OWN destiny. Does that sound like a rational and beneficial course to take?
We invaded another nation for no legitimate reason. Think long and hard about that. What that means is we can expect no rewards, no happy resolutions, period. Wake up, reality is calling.
August 18th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
Al Qaeda wasn’t in Iraq until after we invaded.
And even if we ‘win’ this war, what happens to America when the soldiers come home? Double digit unemployment, massive increase in welfare payouts, everyone cashing out their stock and creating another Crash. Well, everyone but Bush, Cheney and Rove - they’ll put all their money in oil and Haliburton.