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| Iraq |
| More Saddam Victims Unearthed |
| 2006-06-05 |
| Among experts on the American-led team investigating Iraq's mass graves, the skeletal remains lying face-up at the rear of the tangled grave here have been given a name — the Blue Man — that speaks for a sorrowful familiarity developed by some of those who work with victims of mass murder. But more than his blue shirt, and his blue-striped trousers, what distinguishes the remains is the way they speak for the terror of death under Saddam Hussein. The man was thrown backward by automatic weapons fire, his eyes blindfolded and his arms tied behind his back, his skull jerked upward at the neck, his fleshless mouth gaping, his two rows of teeth stretched apart, as though in a primal scream. An example of what the NYT can do right, especially when their best correspondent - John Burns - is at the keyboard. I know someone who went on this trip, he said the remains were incredible, and every bit as dramatic as Burns describes. The commitment and investment of America and Americans (and in this case, the usual band of others like Aussies, Brits, etc.) in doing so many right things in Iraq can be hard to discern through the fog and tragedies and mistakes of war, but it's a story to be proud of, and one hopefully Iraqis will appreciate some day. |
| Posted by:Verlaine in Iraq |
| #6 I'm not surprised to see this story under John Burns' byline. What does surprise me is that he can still stomach working with that filthy nest of Walter Duranty wannabees. About the time that Eason Jordan wrote his crocodile-tears "apology" for CNN's collaboration with the Saddam regime, Burns told an interviewer for Editor & Publisher that he had personally witnessed numerous American journos competing aggressively with each other to see who could do the best job of sucking up to the Baathists. |
| Posted by: Ricky bin Ricardo (Abu Babaloo) 2006-06-05 23:49 |
| #5 I'm afraid I've no idea, Crazy Fool. I just noticed it walking by in the grocery store, chatting on the phone with the clever people repairing Mr. Wife's car. ;-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-05 23:19 |
| #4 TW - Did the dead tree version include this money quote: What happened here is not only a macabre marker in the history of Iraq under Mr. Hussein, but a harrowing footnote in American politics. The victims here, American and Iraqi officials say, died in Mr. Hussein's suppression of the Shiite uprising across southern Iraq in early 1991. It was a rebellion that survivors — and American critics of the President George H. W. Bush — say that the president encouraged after halting American troops at Iraq's southern border with Kuwait at the end of the Persian Gulf war. For years, Middle East experts have debated Mr. Bush's role in encouraging Iraq's Shiites and Kurds to mount a challenge to Mr. Hussein after the war over Iraq's invasion of Kuwait ended, before ruling out American military action to halt the mass killings of Shiites that Mr. Hussein initiated to crush the uprising. Mr. Bush himself has said that what happened to the Shiites was one of the deepest regrets of his presidency. Translation: Its Bush'es Fault. (Bush Senior...) |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2006-06-05 22:34 |
| #3 I saw the dead tree version of the NYT. This story was front page, above the fold. What dirt does Mr. Burns hold on his editors to get such treatment when it goes so against the party line, I wonder? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-05 20:51 |
| #2 If you want to see what a monster Saddam was, check out this Mass Grave Website. And the LLL never gets into this. They are all worried about the environment, but they never condemned his blasting of the oil wells in Kuwait during GW1. They don't give a rat's behind about anything but their agenda, certainly not these poor souls that were eaten up by the Saddam regime. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2006-06-05 17:52 |
| #1 But of course, Iraqis were better off under Saddam. /heavy sarcasm. |
| Posted by: Jonathan 2006-06-05 17:25 |