U.N. Estimates 34,000 Iraqis Died Violent Deaths in 2006

I really don't want to hear any denials. The U.N. numbers are based on public record surveys and those are notoriously accurate sources. You don't get to pick apart the Lancet study because it didn't have enough public record backup and then reject a subsequent study that relies heavily on those sources. Besides that, the Iraq Study Group Report (if Bush ignored it so actively, it must be right) found that Iraqi violence is under reported.

DEATH SQUAD KILLINGS

• According to the latest U.N. report, based on data from hospitals compiled by the Health Ministry and from the Baghdad morgue, 6,376 civilians were killed in the last two months of 2006 -- comprising 3,462 in November and 2,914 in December.
• Of 4,731 people killed in Baghdad in November and December, Magazzeni said most died of gunshot wounds -- an indication they were victims of individual death squad killings, not bombings.
• Though Baghdad is the epicenter of violence, the U.N. report said increasing violence in typically less restive provinces such as Mosul illustrated the overall deterioration in security.
• It said more than 470,000 Iraqis had fled their homes and now claim refuge within Iraq since the February bombing of a Shi'ite shrine in Samarra that prompted a surge in violence. Many more do not register or have fled the country altogether.
• A roadside bomb followed by a blast from a motorcycle rigged with explosives killed 15 people and wounded 70 near a Sunni mosque in central Baghdad on Tuesday, an interior ministry source said. Two more bombs in the capital killed 10 people.
• University students were among the dead in a car bombing that killed 10 people and wounded 25.

The violence is showing no signs of abating in the wake of Bush's proposed escalation ("surge" and "augmentation" do not appear in the Army's dictionary of military terms) and the botched hanging of two more of Saddam Hussein's aids.

This is a civil war, and therefore it is impossible for us to "win" so what the fuck are we doing? It's surreal to me that we are not only staying mired in Iraq, but the president stubbornly - stupidly - insists on escalating the numbers of troops involved, at the expense of the war in Afghanistan.

This is wrong, people, and it's up to us - the literal you and the literal me - to do something about it. It's our country, and I want it back. Have you written your congressional delegation to express your outrage?

What are your plans for Saturday, January 27th? Can you get to Washington? If there is any way in hell you can get to Washington D.C. to take part in the protest, GO. If not, participate in a local rally. Write letters to the editor like the three people in the post below did. We can't be silent, we have to act.

Now is the time to stand up.

Spiraling Violence

October is officially the deadliest month for US forces in Iraq in two years. As we awoke today, it was to the news that the deaths of three Marines in al Anbar province raised Octobers death toll for US forces to 78.

By days end, the Pentagon had confirmed five more troop deaths; four soldiers and one Marine, raising the total to 83, with a week of October remaining.

Across Iraq, the same 24 hour period saw the (reported) deaths of 44 Iraqi's in acts of sectarian violence. Nine were killed and dozens injured when explosions ripped through a busy Baghdad marketplace and bakery where shoppers were buying food for the Eid celebration to mark the end of the holy month of Ramadan. The deadliest attack was on a convoy of police recruits. Gunmen in five sedans ambushed the busses transporting the newly inducted police recruits back home after the ceremony. Fifteen were killed and 25 more seriously injured.

The Bush administration has been spinning furiously, attempting to find any new tactics that might quell the bloodshed as the midterm elections loom ominous for the congressional Republicans. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have expressed less-than-confident feelings about the ability of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to get a handle on the increasing bloodshed.

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on Sunday expressed doubts, indicating that pressuring al-Maliki might not work, as Maliki has very little clout. “We keep saying, 'Go to your Shiites and get them straightened out, or the Sunnis, or divide the oil.' And al-Maliki keeps saying, 'There isn’t any group here that wants to talk about those things.'" Lugar said.

How exactly is what we are doing in Iraq furthering our aims of combating terror? I fail to see how our involvement in Iraq improves our lot one iota; and it sure as hell is not improving the lot of the average Iraqi. So again I ask, what the fuck are we doing there?