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Iraq
Orcs Bombs kill 160 in Baghdad, curfew imposed
2006-11-24
A series of car bombs killed 160 people in a Shi'ite stronghold in Baghdad on Thursday in the bloodiest single attack since the U.S. invasion of 2003. As political leaders scrambled in public to hold Iraqis back from all-out sectarian civil war, they imposed an indefinite curfew on the capital.
Police said the six coordinated blasts in the Sadr City slum wounded 257 people, many maimed for life.
Police said the six coordinated blasts in the Sadr City slum wounded 257 people, many maimed for life. The blasts came at the same time as gunmen surrounded and fired on the Shi'ite-run Health Ministry in one of the boldest daylight assaults by militants in Baghdad. Mortars later crashed down on a nearby Sunni enclave in an apparent reprisal attack.

Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who will meet U.S. President George W. Bush for what is shaping up to be a crisis summit in Jordan next week, vowed to defeat the "dark hand of conspiracy" and urged Iraqis to "refrain from acts of passion".

But similar appeals after a previous provocative bombing, at a major Shi'ite shrine at Samarra in February, failed to stop a wave of bloodshed that has gathered strength ever since, killing a record 3,700 civilians in October alone as a cycle of fear and revenge has taken hold in Baghdad and neighbouring regions. "We call on people to act responsibly and to stand together to calm the situation," Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi and Shi'ite party leader Abdul Aziz al-Hakim said in a joint televised statement, accompanied by Iraq's Kurdish president.
Posted by:Fred

#4  I say we split our forces, some into Kurdistan where we work with the Kurds to expand their forces and solidify our air bases. The other into the shia oil fields where we defend same and continue the flow of oil, while the sunnis and the shias kill each other with gusto. We should keep control of the skies and track movements of groups on the ground. Eventually, we will catch large numbers crossing into Iraq so we can squash them without warning. After all, why allow the shia to control oil, we won the war, it's ours.
Posted by: wxjames   2006-11-24 14:08  

#3  If this devolves into civil war, what will happen?

1) break it to 3 states: sunni-stan, shitite-stan and kurd-istan

2) civil war resulting in Iran-controlled shitites having most of the oil, sunnis marginalised, kurds rooted

3) give up on democracy ideal and install a brutal repressive tyrant that is friendly to the west and US interests.

I prefer 1 then 3.

Democracy was too high an ideal here to implement without the necessary force. To build a culture respectful of the rule of law, tolerant and not corrupt or nepotistic required the kind of defeat and occupation Japan and Germany had after WWII. The population NEED to feel utterly defeated to give up their ways and change.
Then they needed martial law, a US soldier on every corner and an occupation - a real occupation - with the US taking control of every aspect of Iraqi life with NO representation. Iraqis do what they're told. Until such time as democratic infrastructure and culture could be built up.

This hasn't happened - of course it couldn't as popular opinion shapes foreign policy in a democracy like America - so now I just want to know if this is going to affect the price of oil and gold?

Oil is cheap now (always goes down when OPEC threatens to 'cut' production) but if civil war in Iraq, will it go up?

Will we be forced to invade Iran?

What do OldSpook and Zenster think of the strategic outcomes likely from Iraq and the Middle East? I respect you guys you are very spot on.
Posted by: anon1   2006-11-24 07:53  

#2  AP sez it's up to 202, now.
Posted by: .com   2006-11-24 03:29  

#1  A flurry of diplomacy involving Syria and Shi'ite Iran, which Washington says back militants in Iraq, carries high hopes but many question whether any leaders can control the fear and hatred that has taken root in Iraq's heavily armed population.

This is going to be expensive. To the victor go the modern day version of the spoils, I suppose.
Posted by: gorb   2006-11-24 03:00  

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