Another Day in Paradise, Day 1575
14 U.S. troops were killed in a helicopter crash in Iraq today, along with scores of Iraqi civilians in suicide bombings and other assorted mayhem. As he returns from a state visit to Syria, PM al-Maliki adds fuel to the fire by wondering, “With friends like George Bush, who needs enemies?”
There’s been a real dearth of reporting out of Iraq in the past few weeks. Perhaps that’s because congress is on vacation, and so there just isn’t anyone around to stoke the fires of reporting. Or, perhaps that’s because someone, somewhere, clamped down on any reporting of what’s going on in the country. Regardless of my need to send the tinfoil hat in for a tune up, something weird has been going on - maybe our press corps is on vacation, too?
Whoever is left in Baghdad to do the reporting, though, is filing doozies today:
- 14 U.S. military personnel have been killed in a helicopter crash
- Suicide bombings continue apace, the worst (apparently) killing at least 19 and wounding scores more:
Jassim Saleh, 41, who lives some 500 yards away from the blast site, said he saw an explosives-laden truck carrying stones strike the police station.
“It was a horrible scene. I can’t describe it,” he said. “The bodies were scattered everywhere. I was injured in my hand and a leg, but I took three wounded people to the hospital in my car.”
- Hot on the heels of his visit (once again) with the Ahmadinejad regime in Iran, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is returning from Syria after a three day consult with the Assad regime. Responding to George Bush’s criticisms of the Iraqi government yesterday, al-Maliki responded:
“No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government. It was elected by its people,” he said at a news conference in Damascus at the end of a three-day visit to Syria. “Those who make such statements are bothered by our visit to Syria. We will pay no attention. We care for our people and our constitution and can find friends elsewhere.” …
On day 1575 of the American occupation of Iraq, to paraphrase al-Maliki, with friends like George Bush, who needs enemies?
But y’see, if reporting happens, then the democrats won’t be able to give general betray-us 6 more months in September. You know that’s EXACTLY what’s going to happen.
The democrats are going to break their promises, again. And my brother thinks the democrats will reinstate the draft. By 2009, it’s going to be THEIR war to lose. They’re literally letting the war get dumped in their laps, and I cannot imagine a move this dumb can be anything BUT deliberate.
heh betray-us…good ‘un brendan.
i saw some article last week i think about how much less news is appearing from iraq. but it seems to me that when it really cut back was right after we heard about the 190k missing guns. can’t have people thinking about that whenever they read a news story, can we?
and who makes these helicopters that are always crashing? anybody looking into that?
If a helicopter is hit by a missile or small arms fire, it sometimes will crash.
I’m wondering about the US respose if Maliki’s government tells us to get out. Will we resurrect the Banana Republic tactics of the ’50’s?
I highly doubt that Maliki, no matter how uppity he gets, will tell us to get out. From his standpoint, that would be suicide.