Let's talk about those bodies in Baghdad.
The bodies found around Baghdad have become so ubiquitous, blind folded, hands tied, signs of torture, that their reality is no longer really discussed. There were 60 such bodies found in this state just in Baghdad, just on Thursday.
That these are sectarian killings often goes as an assumed fact, but do you ever hear much about the torture? From anecdotal reports, a power drill to the "joints" (knees) or hands seems to be the primary means of torture. (A hammer and nail occasionally substituting.) But recently there has been a rise in the reports of acid being used as a slow torture item. At the endm the victims are then shot in the back of the head.
I mention the disturbing details to make a point. Rarely in any article will you see it discussed why they're inflicting these horrors on bound, blindfolded, defenseless captives.
Primarily, I would assume the torture is an effort at information gathering, however I can't imagine the quality of information being gained. I would think that a power drill to a knee would create an endless chain of the innocent, one naming the next.
I have also read several anecdotal accounts of "trials" being held. Often the beheaded bodies are the victims of these trials. Tortured to confession in front of howling militiamen, and then dragged down and beheaded.
I don't really know what I'm saying here, or what the grand point is, but tonight I got to thinking about the last hour of the 60 men's lives today, the grotesque reality that was the process of their deaths.
There will be 40 or 60 more tomorrow, knees drilled, acid burned, some beheaded, and 40 to 60 the day after that.
That is the reality of Iraq.
That these are sectarian killings often goes as an assumed fact, but do you ever hear much about the torture? From anecdotal reports, a power drill to the "joints" (knees) or hands seems to be the primary means of torture. (A hammer and nail occasionally substituting.) But recently there has been a rise in the reports of acid being used as a slow torture item. At the endm the victims are then shot in the back of the head.
I mention the disturbing details to make a point. Rarely in any article will you see it discussed why they're inflicting these horrors on bound, blindfolded, defenseless captives.
Primarily, I would assume the torture is an effort at information gathering, however I can't imagine the quality of information being gained. I would think that a power drill to a knee would create an endless chain of the innocent, one naming the next.
I have also read several anecdotal accounts of "trials" being held. Often the beheaded bodies are the victims of these trials. Tortured to confession in front of howling militiamen, and then dragged down and beheaded.
I don't really know what I'm saying here, or what the grand point is, but tonight I got to thinking about the last hour of the 60 men's lives today, the grotesque reality that was the process of their deaths.
There will be 40 or 60 more tomorrow, knees drilled, acid burned, some beheaded, and 40 to 60 the day after that.
That is the reality of Iraq.
posted by mikevotes at
9:39 PM
7 Comments:
Maybe I'm just biased...feel free to say so...but the Dubster in my opinion has brought this terrible onslaught upon these people...not to mention what the troops are dealing with now in greater numbers. I'd like someone to ask him how many deaths will it take to get him to figure out this thing isn't working. I guess it's too much to expect. I think this country is ruined forever. It's a shame because its history was so beautiful at one time...now it's dust... with red mingled in it.
By
sumo, at 12:11 AM
I don't know why you put that defensive clause at the front, yes, all of the blood spawns directly or indirectly from the decision to invade. (Certainly terrible things happened under Saddam, but at the time of the invasion, there was not blood like this. The last major killing by Saddam was after the US encouragd the Shia to revolt, and that was awful.)
Also, I think Bush can dodge the question how many more through finish the job rhetoric.
The killer question I'd like to see is "How many US soldiers have died?" Because if he rounds that off the way he did the Iraqi deaths, "more or less 30,000," there would be hell to pay.
And, forever is a long time. Looking at past wars, the infrastruture will take a little more than a decade once the violence stops and if money is available. The bigger questions is what happens to the generation of kids.
The one point Iraq rebounding is that a large number of the wealthy and educated have already gotten out. If things stabilize somehow, and those people return, you get a good influx of brain power.
Mike
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 7:53 AM
Do we really know who's or what's behind this? According to Michael Ware of CNN/Time, the purpose is not to extract information (although perhaps "confessions," such as the one which Bush used as evidence of a connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda), but to "send a message," which appears to be "we are monsters."
Might this inhuman practice be the equivalent of a graduate-degree program in sadism of "Abu Ghraib" University? Consider this perspective:
"SRA: The appalling and pervasive reality hidden in plain sight" at
http://fakeapoc.tripod.com/satanism/sra/sra_hub_page_of_satans_fake_apocalypse_website.htm
By
Anonymous, at 12:53 PM
Good point. I got kind of caught up in the gruesome detail and forgot to mention the "terror" aspect.
Mutiliation of many sorts has been used throught the ages in warfare for this specific purpose.
It kind of drifted through my mind as I was writing, but I forgot to put it in.
Thanks.
By
mikevotes, at 1:12 PM
I wish the people on the right that try to compare what is happening here to the high murder level in Brazil.
1. In Brazil, they usually don't get blind folded and tortured first.
2. America has very little culpability in what goes on in Brazil.
Is that so hard to understand?
By
Praguetwin, at 3:26 PM
When men in power lie, people die. That is Bush's crime, and he should have been impeached a long time ago. It's bad enough that he is the cause of the death of my fellow Americans, but he is also the cause of what you have describe in such reality.
The barbaric, evil minds that can think up such tortures or methods of death, have been unleashed by the lawlessness of war, Bush's war.
What does this say about the Iraqi people? What does this say about the supposed peacefull Islamic religion? Wasn't it enough for Japan and Germany to defeat people? Did they have to engage in such barbaric, brutal elimination of human beings? This is ALL about fear and terror. Oh yes, war IS Hell.
Just another mistake by our leader. His lack of knowledge of the culture of these people. That starting a war in this part of the world, could lead to such behavior by these people. Yes, he is responsible for what's going on in Iraq now, as gross as it is.
Bush speaks to his God, I have to wonder what his God is saying to him about what he has brought onto the world?
By
Unknown, at 3:44 PM
Praguetwin, I haven't run across that argument.
(thumbnailing) Brazil is roughly 20x the population of Iraq, so to be comparable, there would have to be 60,000 murders a month or 720,000 a year.
The torture really is the disturbing part because, by and large, it's unneccesary.
Time, I agree with your fear an terror component of all this.
I would also say, don't oversimplify Iraq into a two sided or three sided civil war. Underneath the main conflict, we are seeing the establishment of warlordism as factions within the factions vie for longterm territory and revenue streams.
And this was wholly unleashed by Bush and the oversimplification of the problem.
I think the voice in his head is still telling him he's doing the right thing, but I don't think it's god.
Mike
By
mikevotes, at 4:51 PM
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