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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (277175)	2/28/2006 6:36:52 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572803

Remember when I said we have no clue what's really happening in Iraq? This is still in all probability a gross underestimate--- 'Wash Post': Killings Much Worse in Iraq Than Reported By E&P Staff Published: February 27, 2006 9:05 PM ET NEW YORK It was worse than even the most shocking reports, recalling days of slaughter in Rwanda. Sectarian violence that followed last week's bombing of a Shiite shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis in the past few days, many times the figure previously reported by the U.S. media and the military, The Washington Post reported late Monday. This made it the deadliest period of the war outside major U.S. offensives, based on bodies at Baghdad's main morgue. In comparison, The New York Times reported Monday that the recent violence "brought the country to the brink of civil war and left at least 200 dead." Others had produced similar figures. "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," the Post reported. "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. "By Monday, violence between Sunnis and Shiites appeared to have eased. As Iraqi security forces patrolled, American troops offered measured support, in hopes of allowing the Iraqis to take charge and prevent further carnage. "But at the morgue, where the floor was crusted with dried blood, the evidence of the damage already done was clear. Iraqis arrived throughout the day, seeking family members and neighbors among the contorted bodies." Morgue officials said they had logged more than 1,300 dead since Wednesday. The Statistics Department of the Iraqi police put the nationwide toll at 1,020, at least. The majority of the dead had been killed after being taken away by armed men, police said. The disclosure of the death tolls, the Post noted, "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.... "In two hours at the morgue on Monday, families brought in two more victims of the violence to receive death certificates. Other families carried away 10 other dead. Most of the victims were Sunni. "At the blue steel doors of the morgue, dozens of more bloody bodies could be seen on the floor or on gurneys. Two hundred still were unidentified and unclaimed, morgue workers said. "Claiming the dead has become automated. Morgue workers directed families to a barred window in the narrow courtyard outside the main entrance. A computer screen angled to face the window flashed the contorted, staring faces of the dead: men shot in the mouth, men shot in the head, men covered with blood, men with bindings twisted around their necks." Meanwhile, the well-known Iraqi blogger known as Riverbend, who writes the Baghdad Burning blog, observed in a new posting on Monday: "The Iraqi government is pretending dismay, but it's doing nothing to curb the violence and the bloodshed beyond a curfew. And where are the Americans in all of this? They are sitting back and letting things happen--sometimes flying a helicopter here or there--but generally not getting involved. "I’m reading, and hearing, about the possibility of civil war. The possibility. Yet I’m sitting here wondering if this is actually what civil war is like. Has it become a reality? Will we look back at this in one year, two years… ten… and say, 'It began in February 2006'? It is like a nightmare in that you don’t realise it’s a nightmare while having it--only later, after waking up with your heart throbbing, and your eyes searching the dark for a pinpoint of light, do you realize it was a nightmare…."