The Afterbirth of Freedom

by matttbastard

At what point do ‘birth pangs’ get diagnosed as a miscarriage?

AP notes the latest record-breaking example of creative destruction in Iraq:

“In the deadliest attack since the beginning of the
Iraq war, suspected Sunni-Arab militants used three suicide car bombs and two mortar rounds on the capital’s Shiite Sadr City slum to kill at least 145 people and wound 238 on Thursday, police said.

The Shiites responded almost immediately, firing 10 mortar rounds at the Abu Hanifa Sunni mosque as Azamiya, killing one person and wounding seven people in their attack on the holiest Sunni shrine in Baghdad.

[...]

Sectarian fighting also broke in another part of northern Iraq on Thursday, when 30 Sunni insurgents armed with machine guns and mortars attacked the Shiite-controlled Health Ministry building. After a three-hour battle, during which Iraqi soldiers and U.S. military helicopters intervened, the attackers were repulsed. But at least seven guards of the ministry were wounded, said police 1st. Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razaq.

The Sadr City and Health Ministry attacks were the latest example of widespread sectarian fighting involving Sunnis and Shiites that is leaving Iraq either on the verge of a civil war or already fighting one.”

This is turning out to be a banner week for dubious milestones; just yesterday the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) released a report claiming 3,709 Iraqi civilians were killed this past October, the highest toll since combat operations began in March 2003. Iraqis are fleeing the country at a rate of 100,000 each month.

But I’m sure they all appreciate the theraputic efforts of the US and UK.

Via The War In Context, Mark Danner gives a valuable recent history lesson here and here.