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Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The willow is too close to the house.

This really is a full service blog.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

Come on, man.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

Let there be snark.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / More Horrific News

More Horrific News

by | 7 Comments

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This is, quite simply, horrifying:

More than 600 people were killed and hundreds injured this morning when rumors of a suicide bomber led to a stampede in a vast procession of Shiite pilgrims as they crossed a bridge on their way to a shrine in northern Baghdad.

Most of the dead were crushed or suffocated, witnesses said, but many also fell or jumped into the Tigris River after the panicking crowd broke through the bridge’s railings.

The pilgrims were among a throng of hundreds of thousands who had converged on the capital over the preceding day to mark the anniversary of the death of Imam Musa al-Kadhim, one of Shiite Islam’s holiest figures.

Fear had begun spreading in the crowd an hour earlier, after insurgents fired rockets and mortars near the shrine, killing seven pilgrims and wounding two dozen, and leading to a counter-attack by American military helicopters.

But the stampede, which caused the greatest one-day loss of life since the American invasion in March 2003, appears to have been caused by unfounded rumors of a man wearing a suicide belt in the crowd.

Absolutely awful.

Reader Interactions

7Comments

  1. 1.

    gratefulcub

    I have only heard it from one source (NPR Morning Edition) but it may be worse. They are reporting the about 150 of the dead may have been poisoned and not trampled to death.

    If that is the rumor in Baghdad, it probably doesn’t matter if it turns out being true or not. If the Shia believe it is true…..

    The Sunni want to start a full scale civil war, knowing that we will have to leave. Allowing them the ability to destroy the new government, and take power by force. This seems like the perfect way to goad the Shiites into fighting.

    Again, one source, but if true it is quite ominous.

  2. 2.

    Tim F

    about 150 of the dead may have been poisoned

    Oh shit. Please tell me they got that wrong. If they’re right this would be the Iraqi Shia’s September 11th.

  3. 3.

    gratefulcub

    Again, I heard it from one source. While I trust NPR (I know some think they are a liberal propoganda network of liers) they can get erroneous information. But, that was the report I heard. I too hope that it is wrong, and that it wasn’t a rumor coming out of baghdad. Like I said, if the shia believe it, the consequences are the same as it being true.

  4. 4.

    Shygetz

    It doesn’t matter what the truth is. If the Shia believe that some were poisoned, or even that a Sunni agitator is the one who cried “suicide bomber” to start the stampede, then that could be it. They already know that the Sunni tried to mortar them during their ceremony. What I don’t understand is why the Sunni are so eager for a fight? They are outnumbered, with Iran nearby ready to pitch in and a bunch of Shia and Kurds who don’t hate each other, but REALLY dislike the Sunni. If it were me, I would be following the ancient philosophy of Shut the Hell Up and Stay Out of the Way.

  5. 5.

    gratefulcub

    Because the Republican Guard and all the high ranking military officers are Sunni. They are armed, they have training. They believe they can beat the Shia if the US is out of the picture. They won’t try to attack the entire country, they will stay out of the South and the North. They will take over the government, re-establish themselves and the military, then subdue the south and north.

    That isn’t what I think will happen, but I believe that is the idea of starting a civil war. They just want us out, then they will take power by whatever means necessary. Maybe they are expecting help from SA and Syria at that point. Maybe they are hoping Iran steps in to aid the Shia, forcing SA and Syria to enter the fray. There are some in Iraq and the ME that are more than willing to start the Shia Sunni war that includes the entire region.

    But ‘shut the hell up and stay out of the way’ allows Iraq to become a Shiite led state with close ties to Iran. That is a fate worse than death, so they will fight.

  6. 6.

    neil

    But of course, it would be irresponsible to suggest that George Bush shares any of the moral culpability for this, as any other, tragedy, since he was not personally there in the crowd egging them on.

    Right…

  7. 7.

    goonie bird

    See what a lie can do it can get up to 600 inocent people killed and should they hang first DAN RATHER or TOM BROKAW?

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