Picture of the Day - 2
A man killed by gunmen lies in the back of a police vehicle in Baghdad October 22, 2006. Gunmen killed a man police said was responsible for bicycle bomb and mortars attacks on Saturday that killed 16 and wounded 60 in a market in Mahmudiya. REUTERS/Stringer
(And huge credit to the unnamed photographer. These are the kind of pictures that can get you killed.)
posted by mikevotes at
11:00 AM
3 Comments:
Mike, this is stunning. We know it is going on, but you have captured this perfectly.
Did you read Knickmeyer's piece on Balad today?
I just don't think we are going to be able to disarm the Sunnis, neutralize the militias, and build a safe zone in Baghdad.
Expect a US generals revolt in 2007 if we lose Baghdad.
By
Bravo 2-1, at 4:22 PM
Yeah, I did. That was the one using Balad as a microcosm for the broader civil war conflict. Pretty good as a way to explain all the moving parts of violence, group loyalty, ethnic cleansing and retribution.
But it does oversimplify in the respect that it didn't really include the intra-Shia or intra-Sunni conflicts that are taking placve in their respective "safe" territories. In Balad, there are really two main leadership groups to try to make peace with, whereas in the broader country, do you make a deal with one groups of Sunnis or Shia and then help them destroy their competition?
The fires beneath the fighting are all political economic. The only way we snuff the violence is to give everybody a good part of what they want, and I don't see how that happens. That is what they have to resolve.
And I find a generals' revolt an interesting idea. I'll have to chew on it for a day or two. That would be so major.
By
mikevotes, at 4:48 PM
They're already laying the groundwork.
By
Chuck, at 8:11 PM
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