Last Throes My Ass

Can we just abandon the proposition the Iraqi insurgents are in their last throes? It was a lie then and its a lie now. It's getting worse and no happy painting of the situation in Iraq can hide the horror experienced daily by the Iraqi people.

A parked car bomb exploded at a popular outdoor market Saturday in a Shiite slum in Baghdad, killing at least 66 people and wounding dozens, authorities said. It was the bloodiest attack to hit Iraq since the death of terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

The blast, which occurred around 10 a.m. when the Sadr City market was packed with shoppers, destroyed the stalls where food and clothes are peddled and sent up a plume of gray smoke. Flames shot out the windows of several scorched cars.

Ambulances rushed to the scene and carried the victims to hospitals, where men cradled crying babies as doctors bandaged them. Rasoul Zaboun, an official from the Imam Ali Hospital in Sadr City, said 66 people were killed and 87 wounded.

Police Col. Hassan Jaloob also said 22 shops and stalls were destroyed, along with 14 vehicles.

I've said this before and I'll probably undoubtedly say it again. When you went about your daily tasks yesterday or last week, did you constantly watch for "mysterious" packages or boxes? Did you carefully scrutinize nearby cars? Did you watch strangers? OK, I'm not talking girl/boy watching, I mean checking out strangers to evaluate their risk to you.

More importantly did you worry you might be blown into tiny pieces at any moment? Of course you didn't, but the Iraqi people do worry about such every minute of every day and night. They might not consciously think about it, but it's always in the back of their minds. They may not get home with that loaf of bread. They may be dead in the next minute or two.

Now imagine this. You come home. Pet the dog/cat or both. You eat and watch a little TV. Then you go to bed. And then imagine several heavily armed people crash through your door and make you drop to your knees or lie flat on the floor. What happens next is up to your imagination, but what I've outlined is enough to instill horrid fear in an Iraqi. They never know if they can sleep in peace.

The US presence is causing much of the violence and the situation will never improve while the coalition forces are there.