Saturday, April 14, 2007

The Motive V.S. The Crime

Today in Baghdad, 56 people were killed in a deadly suicide bombing at a busy bus stop. A 72-year-old woman ran through the hospital searching for her 6-year-old grandson and daughter. "They were near the bomb. They went to buy something for our lunch. What did they do to deserve this? To whom should I complain? There is no government to protect us," she said, sobbing.
Also happening in Iraq, mainly around Baghdad, was a car bomb that killed 10 people on the Jadriyah bridge. Gunmen attacked the home of Adnan al-Dulaimi who is the head of the largest Sunni bloc of parliament. In the attack five guards were injured and al-Dulaimi was not at home. Three bodyguards of Mohammed Abdul Jabar, the deputy minister of industry, were injured in a drive-by shooting. Three civilians and one policeman were killed in another drive-by shooting. Two policemen and one civilian were killed by a roadside bomb. Another roadside bomb killed one civilian. And a bomb missed by Iraqi security patrols injured three electricity workers.
This exhaustive list of atrocities finally poured over the edge with Iraqis and so a mob rioted around the Karbala governor's office demanding resignations for the poor security they have been offering their people. Police cars were burned and buildings were damaged by rocks being thrown at them.
The situation in Iraq has reached a dire point in need of serious help. This is the product of war. The only thing that comes from war is death and destruction by its own definition. Is this what the U.S. had in mind for a better Iraq? Is this what the terrorists and insurgents want for their own people? They have been killing more innocent Iraqis than the occupying troops have been killing insurgents. The future of Iraq is looking bleak and everyday people are suffering more than the last. As the grandmother in the above quote was saying; there is no government protecting the people. But it is more difficult than that because it is the people who are hurting each other. Only when these issues that are making people hurt each other are confronted diplomatically will the violence end.
For every bomb that goes off and every life that is lost, there is a voice crying for something they feel is worth killing for or even dying for. And it is far too easy to brush it off as pure evil as President Bush has done. The killing and violence is happening for a reason and until people start asking why and begin trying to solve these problems no end will be in sight for those endless droves of men, women and children searching for their families in crowded hospitals. No one should have to live with the sort of terror, anguish and sorrow that the Iraqi people have been living with since being "liberated".