Iraq in 2007 ... still descending to the pit of Hell!

Iraq in 2007

For Dante, treason was the worst of crimes! Yeh, that's Judas Iscariot along with Brutus and Cassius (assassins of Julias Ceasar) hanging out of Satan's mouth at the very pit of Hell in the mind's eye (and in the painting of Dante's Pilgrim reaching the pit of hell). I won't suggest who might belong there today, but a lot of persons come to mind as the carnage rages on in Baghdad and environs as well as the rest of Iraq.

For starters, more than 25 of our soldiers were killed yesterday across Iraq in one of the bloodiest days for US troops even as the Pentagon announced that 3,200 new troops had been dropped into Baghdad to stem the violence.

This time, the US military, in a series of statements tallying up the body count, listed a helicopter crash, insurgent attacks (in American uniforms this time) and roadside bombs as being responsible for the high number of casualties. At last count, 12 servicemen were killed in a helicopter crash, five in a clash with gunmen in the holy Shi'ite city of Karbala and five more in separate incidents in western Anbar, heartland of the Sunni insurgency, whose deaths were announced yesterday.
One soldier was killed when a roadside bomb hit his patrol north of Baghdad and two others died elsewhere.

Ironically, President George W Bush is expected to use his State of the Union address to Congress to argue (again) for his plan to send thousands more troops to Iraq, despite opposition from Democrats who now control both houses of the legislature. I wonder just where the 3,200 who just "dropped in" on Baghdad fit in this new escalation ...

Armed insurgents also set an oil well ablaze yesterday near the disputed northern city of Kirkuk. Gunmen overpowered soldiers guarding an oil field 45km west of Kirkuk, planted explosives at a well head and set them off.

Yeh ... watch for more attacks on the Iraqi oil industry as the full understanding of the laws being passed by our lackeys in the Iraqi Government to send the money to American oil companies begins to sink home with the Iraqis who until now have been totally clueless.

And have I bothered to yet mention that another three or four dozen Iraqis have been blown up or found dead around Iraq (almost all of the ones found dead having been tortured)?

Of all of the above, it will surely be the the fire at the oil well that will catch Mr. Bush's attention and insure that he will send another 25,000 to 30,000 American boys and girls into the heart of Iraq's Civil war (into the pit of hell) to save the day for the Texas oilmen who made sure that he would win a couple of elections in 2000 and 2004. My guess is that he will boost the number beyond 21,500 when he addresses us all on Tuesday. That damned oil fire yesterday probably sealed the fate of another thousand of our kids in Iraq ...

Can anybody stop the madness?