Death of Baghdad - by Larry Johnson

Civil society depends ultimately on the ability of the government to protect the safety and security of its people. If someone commits murder, we look to the government officials to find the culprit, arrest and try the suspect, and punish the guilty. When people lose confidence in the government's ability or willingness to protect them, they have little alternative but to turn to self-defense and neighborhood militias.

Today's story in the Guardian chronicles the horror and savagery that pass for society in Iraq. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2230672,00.html

For Iraqis who suffer the loss of a family member, a dreaded ritual ensues. Everyone knows there is no point in reporting a missing person to the police — no action will be taken. The first stop is always the morgue. The lucky ones find a body straight away. For others, the morning walk past the coffins has to be repeated. Their search can last for days.

As a former trauma specialist in a hospital casualty department, Dr Baker Siddique, 29, thought he was inured to scenes of carnage. But nothing he had witnessed prepared him for a visit to a pathologist friend working at the mortuary.

“I saw a street packed with people and coffins standing up vertically,” he said. “There wasn’t enough room to lie them horizontally.”

His voice faltered and his eyes filled with tears as he recounted the agony of a woman in black who discovered the bodies of her four sons that day.


http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/06/the_death_of_ba.html

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. a woman in black who discovered the bodies of her four sons that day

And remember children, Saddam was a bad bad man who graciously shook Donald Rumsfeld's hand, because he could.

[Kingshakabobo]

2. Is that tuxedo pic legit? I've never seen it. n/t

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. I don't know.... you can right click on it and see where I found

it... came from a site I wasn't familiar with.... could be a contrivance... I'd better check. It's from a German blog.... I wouldn't count on it not being "created" for effect.

[lyonn]

3. These stories are told over and over again

What part doesn't America get? These are not people that die of natural causes, of course morgues have customers but not in the condition that is described daily in Yahoo news, Times on Line and small sound bites on the msm. People don't want to know the truth because it hurts too much and there is not a damn thing we in this country can do but vote and no one is sure about that.

It is hard to face the fact that our country has screwed up big time and that our great and good country could allow such to happen and not acknowledge it other than through saying that the "insurgents and terrorist are doing their best to get us out and we will stay the course." This article and many others have plainly described the "course". Hideous things are happening in Iraq and this country's high official are going to stay the course. Sick