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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (70184)	11/18/2005 12:47:27 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

Polk never fought in a war. FDR never fought in a war. LBJ never fought in a war. If you think of anything that will stand elementary scrutiny, come back.

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (70184)	11/18/2005 12:59:33 PM
From: Mao II	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

What else are they going to say? Cut and run and surrender were also thrown at critics by Johnson, Nixon and other proponents of the Vietnam disaster. M2

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (70184)	11/18/2005 1:54:44 PM
From: Lazarus_Long	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 81568

These your friends? Bombers Kill at Least 65 Inside Two Shiite Mosques in Iraq * E-Mail This * Printer-Friendly * Single-Page * Reprints * Save Article By EDWARD WONG Published: November 18, 2005 BAGHDAD, Iraq, Nov. 18 - A pair of suicide bombers detonated explosive belts today inside two Shiite mosques in the northern Kurdish town of Khanaqin, collapsing the buildings, killing at least 65 people and wounding scores more. The attack came as worshipers were gathering for Friday prayers. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Mohammed Adnan/Associated Press A pair of suicide bombers detonated explosive belts today inside two Shiite mosques in the northern Kurdish town of Khanaqin. The Reach of War Go to Complete Coverage Related Names of the Dead (November 18, 2005) Readers Forum: The Transition in Iraq Enlarge This Image Ali Yussef/AFP – Getty Images At least 65 people died in the Eastern Iraqi town of Khanaqin today after suicide bombers detonated explosives inside two Shiite mosques during Friday prayers. It was the deadliest coordinated bombing in Iraq in nearly three months, and came hours after two suicide truck bombs exploded outside a hotel in downtown Baghdad that houses many foreign journalists. The blasts, which killed at least six Iraqis and injured at least 60, completely reduced a neighboring apartment building to rubble. The well-organized assault at the Hamra Hotel, one of the most important and perhaps the most heavily populated expatriate center outside the fortified Green Zone, was the latest strike in a growing jihadist campaign against virtually all foreign presence here. Closely resembling an attack last month on two other prominent hotels, it shattered any notion that journalists might have had about retaining a protected or neutral status in this war. At least a dozen major Western news organizations have offices and living quarters in the Hamra compound. The collapse of the nearby apartment building sent a mushroom cloud above the Baghdad skyline. In the hours after the explosion, two dozen firefighters and Iraqi soldiers struggled to get to people buried in a mound of rubble from the collapsed apartment, picking away at the debris with their hands. Women in black robes sat weeping along the metal-strewn street, surrounded by the charred hulks of cars that had burst into flame. Deep pools of water from ruptured mains covered the area. American Apache attack helicopters circled overhead. The Iraqis drove in a bulldozer to help clear away the debris, and American soldiers brought in an armored tank recovery vehicle to lift away slabs of concrete. Rescuers pulled out a boy and a Sudanese man. An American colonel said that at least five people were still trapped in the rubble at 10:30 a.m., more than two hours after the attack. "I fell to the ground and shrapnel flew above my head," said a laborer, Ali Muhammad Kadhum, 44, who was walking past the Hamra to work. "I can't believe I'm still alive. The entire building fell down as if it were made of paper." Mr. Kadhum said his nearby apartment had been completely wrecked and his six-member family left homeless, including a 5-month-old baby. "No one accepts this," he added. "This is a criminal act. We're civilians here, poor people." He then stripped off his brown flannel shirt and rushed away to help dig through the rubble. In the afternoon, a similarly grim scene unfolded in Khanaqin, near the Iranian border 100 miles northeast of Baghdad, as dozens of people began sifting through the rubble of the two mosques. The explosions had taken place around noon, at the start of prayers, and were followed by a smaller bombing outside a bank, an Interior Ministry official said. The Khanaqin hospital overflowed with victims, and many of the injured had to be rushed outside the town for treatment. "We denounce this cowardly action that targeted our brethren worshipers in Khanaqin," said Hafed Abdul-Aziz, the assistant to the governor of Diyala Province, which includes Khanaqin. "We pray to God to unveil these cowardly terrorists so that Iraq can live in a state of security and prosperity." The attack was the deadliest in the country since a triple truck bombing on Sept. 29 in the Shiite town of Balad claimed a similar number of victims. No group took immediate responsibility for the Khanaqin attack, but the operation resembled those carried out by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the militant group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Another group, Ansar al-Sunna, often strikes at Kurds with suicide bombings. The sectarian nature of the killings underscored the growing divide between ethnic and religious groups in Iraq, even as the country moves toward elections in December for a full, four-year government. The split between the majority Shiites and the former ruling Sunni Arabs widened this week after American soldiers discovered 169 malnourished detainees, virtually all Sunni Arabs, in a secret police center in Baghdad that is operated by the Shiite-run Interior Ministry. One witness to the American raid said that at least a third of the detainees had bruises or cuts on their faces and bodies. The senior United Nations human rights official, Louise Arbour, called today for an international inquiry. continued.... nytimes.com