NationStates Jolt Archive

This kind of news has become so frequent that some may tend to ignore it. If it happened anywhere else it would top headlines for days, and I see no reason why it shouldn't be. Quite the opposite.


Hospital and security sources put the casualty toll at 88 dead and 160 wounded in Haraj market, which is usually filled with traders selling used electronic goods, watches, clothing and medicines.

"There were so many victims they were piled up on wooden market carts, the wounded on top of the dead, and hauled to ambulances and police vehicles," an AFP photographer at the site said.

"Improvised rescue workers made their way through the carnage amid the cries of those wounded."

At the nearby Al-Kindi hospital, some of the victims' relatives squatted on the ground, holding their heads in grief, while others cried before bodies lined up on the ground and covered with light blue and black plastic sheets.

But the deadly mayhem did not stop there.

A few hours later, a combination of mortar fire and a roadside bomb killed another 12 people at a popular market in the town of Khalis, 80 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

The bomb was placed in a vegetable cart and ripped through a crowd of people as they shopped late in the day in the town, which is located in the volatile Diyala province, Lieutenant Ahmad Mohammed said.


Full article here (http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/world/20070122-Baghdad-twin-car-bombs-update.html).

This kind of news has become so frequent that some may tend to ignore it. If it happened anywhere else it would top headlines for days, and I see no reason why it shouldn't be. Quite the opposite.



Full article here (http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/world/20070122-Baghdad-twin-car-bombs-update.html).

It should be news especially when so many people die in one day. It's like a bomb going off in San Fransisco killing this many would be covered on CNN, FOX, et al. days on end. Instead we get the kidnapped kid for a week.

It should be news especially when so many people die in one day. It's like a bomb going off in San Fransisco killing this many would be covered on CNN, FOX, et al. days on end. Instead we get the kidnapped kid for a week.

Only if it's a pretty white girl.

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/3226/death6sw.png

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/3226/death6sw.png

He would need a much bigger abacus than that.

It should be news especially when so many people die in one day. It's like a bomb going off in San Fransisco killing this many would be covered on CNN, FOX, et al. days on end.

Exactly my point. 100 people murdered, and it tends to get trivialised simply because it's now almost routine in Iraq.

:(

Although there has been a lot of violence in Iraq for the past few years and its almost more of a story if there is no deadly sectarian violence on any given day, I still felt shocked and saddened when I heard this news on the radio this morning.

Exactly my point. 100 people murdered, and it tends to get trivialised simply because it's now almost routine in Iraq.

That, and because it's Iraqis instead of Americans. Many people tend to blame Iraqis for Saddam Hussein as a way of justifying their deaths.

And today:


A suicide bomber blew up his Mercedes truck in a Baghdad market Saturday killing at least 130 people in the second deadliest attack since the US-led invasion of 2003.

The blast was the worst attack since coordinated car bombings in the Baghdad Shiite neighbourhood of Sadr City on November 23 killed at least 202 people.

Another 305 people were wounded in the massive attack in central Baghdad's Al-Sadriya district, the latest in a rash of insurgent bombings of shopping districts as US troop reinforcements ready a much-heralded security crackdown.

[...]

The blast sent a long plume of thick grey smoke into the overcast sky just before dusk, when markets are usually crowded with shoppers out for food ahead of the nighttime curfew that takes effect at 9:00 pm (1800 GMT).

[...]

There were chaotic scenes at local hospitals as volunteers rushed in the wounded while charred bodies lay in trucks and corridors that became makeshift mortuaries.

The blast also collapsed nearby houses, and many people were reportedly trapped in the debris.


Full article here (http://www.france24.com/france24Public/en/news/world/20070203-iraq-market.html).

Again, if this were happening anywhere else - say, in Rome or Washington instead of Baghdad - it would top headlines for weeks. Just recently, five Iraqi girls were killed when a rocket was fired into a school.

On a semi-unrelated note, I don't suppose I'd be wrong if I guessed that this war has killed more Iraqis than Saddam did during his entire rule (sorry if that's a dumb question)?

On a semi-unrelated note, I don't suppose I'd be wrong if I guessed that this war has killed more Iraqis than Saddam did during his entire rule (sorry if that's a dumb question)?
Depends whose estimate you used.

Saddam killed about 180,000 of his own people.
The UN and the Iraqis reckon about 150,000 civilians have died due to violence in this war.
Iraqbodycount has a much lower figure, but openly admits that it gets its figures from the news, and hence it will be a much lower figure than the actual truth.
The Lancet's figure of around 700,000 civilian deaths due to the war, due to violence and also due to infrastructural issues, like hospitals running low on medicine, and people dying that kind of way.

So it depends who you ask, really.

Depends whose estimate you used.

Saddam killed about 180,000 of his own people.
The UN and the Iraqis reckon about 150,000 civilians have died due to violence in this war.
Iraqbodycount has a much lower figure, but openly admits that it gets its figures from the news, and hence it will be a much lower figure than the actual truth.
The Lancet's figure of around 700,000 civilian deaths due to the war, due to violence and also due to infrastructural issues, like hospitals running low on medicine, and people dying that kind of way.

So it depends who you ask, really.

I think the real irony is that this is the probably sort of thing that'd happen to Iraq if Saddam didn't go about oppressing Iraqis.....

Depends whose estimate you used.

Saddam killed about 180,000 of his own people.
The UN and the Iraqis reckon about 150,000 civilians have died due to violence in this war.
Iraqbodycount has a much lower figure, but openly admits that it gets its figures from the news, and hence it will be a much lower figure than the actual truth.
The Lancet's figure of around 700,000 civilian deaths due to the war, due to violence and also due to infrastructural issues, like hospitals running low on medicine, and people dying that kind of way.

So it depends who you ask, really.

Ah, thanks.

The Lancet figure sounds the most accurate to me. But I've heard several radically different figures given for the number of Saddam's victims, from under 100,000 to over 2,000,000.

I think the real irony is that this is the probably sort of thing that'd happen to Iraq if Saddam didn't go about oppressing Iraqis.....
Absolutely. No sectarian violence when he was in control. Oh no.

This is what what happens when you let die-hard Capitalists set things up - they're so heavily into "competition", they'll even allow for competing forms of authority. Awww, don't be sad; the Iraqis chose Pepsi over Coke.

Absolutely. No sectarian violence when he was in control. Oh no.

I think the sectarian violence under Saddam was more localized, and less random. From what I can understand, he squished dissent not just with prejudice, but quickly before it could spread.

From what I saw of the early days of US armed forces control over Iraq, they had the prejudice, but not the effectiveness. Of course if they emulated Saddam, that'd be the end of whatever PR moves the administration could put on.