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Iraq: Car Bomb or Bombs Kill 45 or 57

According to the New York Times, "2 Bombs Kill 57 in Central Baghdad."  According to CNN, "Suicide truck bomb kills at least 45 in Baghdad."  Maybe 148, maybe 151 people were wounded.  Maybe there were two bombs, maybe there was one.  It might have been a pickup truck, or maybe a minibus.

And we probably won´t learn the final total, because by the time it´s known, there will be a new tragedy to report.  This will be one more in a string of bombings and killings that all, ultimately, blur together for those of us reading the uncertain reports as they emerge.  

But hold it in your mind for a moment, even if the details fluctuate.

Many of the 45 killed and 148 wounded by a suicide truck bomb blast in central Baghdad Tuesday morning were unemployed Iraqis lured toward the explosion by an offer of work, according to an official with the Iraqi Interior Ministry.

A pickup truck, loaded with about 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of explosives, pulled into Tayaran Square at 7 a.m., a time when hundreds of unemployed Iraqis were gathered with their picks and shovels seeking a day´s work.

The driver signaled to the would-be workers that he had jobs for them -- causing a crush of people around the truck -- and he detonated his bomb, the official said.

In the 11 brief paragraphs CNN gives to this, several other tallies of violence are offered: two roadside bombs killing four American soldiers and wounding three.  Three bombings in Baghdad killing three; an Iraqi Army Colonel killed.  "Fifty-one bullet-riddled bodies" in the not-a-civil-war occurring in Iraq.

You have not yet had a situation also where you have two clearly defined and opposing groups vying not only for power, but for territory," White House press secretary Tony Snow said. "What you do have is sectarian violence that seems to be less aimed at gaining full control over an area than expressing differences, and also trying to destabilize a democracy - which is different than a civil war, where two sides are clashing for territory and supremacy."

You can be blown up just for trying to get a day´s work, and the details of your death pass by too quickly for people in the country occupying yours to fully register them.  But at least it´s not a civil war.

Iraq [SHOW]

Tony Snow: The CliffNotes Version

In reading yesterday´s White House press briefing, something rather interesting stood out for me.  It wasn´t the usual distortions or lies, although they were there too.  But what struck me was that Snow managed to express all of this administration´s arrogant contempt for the American people, what we think and what we want, in a just a few short answers.  

When Snow said:

...much as Joe Lieberman, formerly a Democrat, apparently run out of his party for disagreeing with what was seen as orthodoxy at that time

...I thought to myself, isn´t that called democracy?    

And when Snow was asked about Republican Senator Gordon Smith saying:

Our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day, it´s absurd. It may even be criminal.

...Snow disputed "the "criminal" part, obviously," and added:

But do not assume that people are simply being blown up. They are on missions.

Yes, how stupid we are be to assume that the majority of our soldiers are randomly killed by IED´s because they are driving in the wrong place at the wrong time.

And Snow´s response to a question about a recent poll showing that 67% of Americans want a timeline set for withdrawing our troops from Iraq?

Public opinion is not something chiseled in stone. Quite often it´s shaped by, among other things, political campaigns. And now there´s an opportunity for both parties to work together.  [...]

My guess is that you will see, when the President is addressing the American people and addressing many of the concerns you´re talking about, it will create a basis of support.

Apparently we´ve been duped by political campaigns into losing our will.  But as soon as the President explains everything, we´ll be right back on board.  

It seems that democracy, reality and the will of the people mean nothing to this White House.  And yes, we´ve long known it.  It´s just unusual to have it all spelled out in one press briefing.

Tony Snowpress briefing [SHOW]