Crowds Celebrate 13 Deaths in Iraq Blast

[leftchick]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040614/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq&cid=540&ncid=1480

The blast, during the morning rush hour near busy Tahrir Square, was the second vehicle bombing in Baghdad in as many days amid an upsurge of bloodshed in the capital only two weeks before the formal end of the U.S.-led occupation.


Iraq (news - web sites)'s interior minister said he believed foreigners carried out the attack, and Prime Minister Iyad Allawi accused Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi of trying to disrupt the transfer of sovereignty. Al-Zarqawi, believed to have contacts with al-Qaida, is accused in last month's decapitation of American Nicholas Berg.


The chaotic scene Monday was reminiscent of the violence and anti-American hatred that accompanied the March 31 slaying in Fallujah of four Americans, whose bodies were mutilated and hung from a Euphrates river bridge.


Moments after the thunderous blast, which shook the heart of the capital, young men raced into the street, hurling stones at the flaming wreckage, looting personal belongings of the victims and chanting slogans against the occupation.



Iraqi youth cheer and shout close to a burning vehicle they believe belonged to foreigners following a car bomb in a main shopping area of Baghdad.(AFP/Cris Bouroncle)

[progressivebydesign]

1. Guess they removed the part about our troops beating one them..

Earlier articles had the crowd of young men taunting them, and chanting. One of our troops began beating one with a stick.. then the police and troops retreated.

It's terrible that it has come to this. I don't condone celebrating someone's death... but what the fuck do we expect? These young men aren't getting GOP Dan Senor's memos of all the happy things in Iraq right now... all they're seeing is the death and destruction and unemployment. How have we turned a moderate, middle class country into a terrorist hell-hole? How many car bombings were there before America arrived? How many terrorist attacks?

[denverbill]

2. They hate us for the freedom we brought them.

Much like former slaves hated their former masters when their masters freed them. Or like how the Jews revolted when Pharoah tried to force them to accept their freedom.

People just naturally don't like being given freedom and prefer slavery, forced labor, and detention. If we persevere, however, we can jam freedom down their throats, whether they like it or not.

[struggle4progress]

7. ???

x(

[denverbill]

8. Sorry, it was a lame attempt at humor.

Based on the 'the hate us for our freedoms' line of reasoning so commonly used by Shrub.

[struggle4progress]

11. Sorry, just couldn't figure out what you were saying.

:)

[Gloria]

3. BBC World Service this AM said that crowds were "pushing back"

US soldiers and shouting for America to go home.........

[shadu]

4. Good to see the people have not lost their spirit

They have every right to fight back.

[Piperay]

5. Gee, 'they like us

they really like us'...NOT! :argh:

[daleo]

6. Talk about unraveling

No country likes being occupied, and eventually people resist. It makes you wonder how the Soviets managed for so long, occupying Eastern Europe. I suppose they knew enough to provide power, water, jobs, food, security - those sorts of incidentals.

[Disturbed]

10. Iraqs didn't get the memo?

Hello Iraqis,

You have a "new" Govt. and you are now a Sovereign Nation once again.
The Occupation is over. Those 140K Troops in your country are for your protection. The USA will provide for all of your needs real soon.
Trust BushCo and everything will be just fine.

Thank you,

GW Bush, Pres. of BushCo

[SOS]

12. Re Eastern Europe

A senior citizen in Prague told an interesting story along those lines.
He said in 1945 the citizens of Prague cheered the Soviet liberators.
By 1968 the Czechs were throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the Russian tanks.
Using this as a model, it is easy to predict that the longer the US stays in Iraq, the worse it will get.

[hightime]

9. Maybe the Americans have done this to us to allow them to stay on longer.

Maybe the Americans have done this to us to allow them to stay on longer," Qais Alwan said from his hospital bed. "OK, let them stay, but why are they doing this to us? All the victims are Iraqis, so by God, they must be Americans because Iraqis don't kill fellow Iraqi brothers."

[Geo55]

13. This flys in the face of BushCo

If the bomb is from foreign "insurgents"....would not the reaction be shocked horror as opposed to celebration....
Those "hearts an' minds" don't seem to be coming around.