How many deaths?
Oh, good God. From the Washington Post:
Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.
Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday Monday -- sprawled, blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their heads. Many of the bodies had their hands still bound -- and many of them had wound up at the morgue after what their families said was their abduction by the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The same Moqtada al-Sadr who has been working to end the sectarian killings?
Also, this:
The disclosure of the death tolls [from the Iraqi statistics department and the the more complete count from the morgue] followed accusations by the U.S. military and later Iraqi officials that the news media had exaggerated the violence between Shiites and Sunnis over the past few days.
Just 17 hours ago, the WaPo reported (emphasis mine):
The U.S. ambassador, closely engaged in efforts to forge a national unity government, acknowledged Iraqis "came to the brink of civil war" after Wednesday's suspected al Qaeda bombing of a Shi'ite shrine but said: "Things are getting better."
But the Sunni minority's main political bloc said it was not ready to end the boycott of coalition talks which it announced in protest at reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques; police tallies indicate that over 200 people died in the five days of violence.
I read that two hundred give-or-take figure all weekend. And, frankly, two hundred in five days isn't much worse, or any worse actually, than the death tolls from sectarian conflict being recorded in the fall of 2004 while Bush was on his way to reelection -- making me doubtful about all the "civil war" talk following the initial Golden Mosque bombing and its reprisals (though, granted, it was mainly Shiites being killed then, and now mainly Sunnis).
Thirteen hundred in five days, on the other hand, is pretty much brand new territory. And the very idea of conservative and military outrage over deaths being overreported...
Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.
Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday Monday -- sprawled, blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their heads. Many of the bodies had their hands still bound -- and many of them had wound up at the morgue after what their families said was their abduction by the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.
The same Moqtada al-Sadr who has been working to end the sectarian killings?
Also, this:
The disclosure of the death tolls [from the Iraqi statistics department and the the more complete count from the morgue] followed accusations by the U.S. military and later Iraqi officials that the news media had exaggerated the violence between Shiites and Sunnis over the past few days.
Just 17 hours ago, the WaPo reported (emphasis mine):
The U.S. ambassador, closely engaged in efforts to forge a national unity government, acknowledged Iraqis "came to the brink of civil war" after Wednesday's suspected al Qaeda bombing of a Shi'ite shrine but said: "Things are getting better."
But the Sunni minority's main political bloc said it was not ready to end the boycott of coalition talks which it announced in protest at reprisal attacks on Sunni mosques; police tallies indicate that over 200 people died in the five days of violence.
I read that two hundred give-or-take figure all weekend. And, frankly, two hundred in five days isn't much worse, or any worse actually, than the death tolls from sectarian conflict being recorded in the fall of 2004 while Bush was on his way to reelection -- making me doubtful about all the "civil war" talk following the initial Golden Mosque bombing and its reprisals (though, granted, it was mainly Shiites being killed then, and now mainly Sunnis).
Thirteen hundred in five days, on the other hand, is pretty much brand new territory. And the very idea of conservative and military outrage over deaths being overreported...
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