Minutemen strike again

35 children - children - are dead after the latest Iraqi car bombing. Michael Moore, John Pilger and Ted Rall must be so proud:

Three bombs exploded at a neighborhood celebration Thursday in western Baghdad, killing 35 children and seven adults, officials said. Hours earlier, a suicide car bomb killed a U.S. soldier and two Iraqis on the capital's outskirts.

The bombs in Baghdad's al-Amel neighborhood caused the largest death toll of children in any insurgent attack since the conflict in Iraq began 17 months ago. The children, who were still on school vacation, said they had been drawn to the scene by American soldiers handing out candy.

The blasts - at least two of which an Iraqi official said were suicide car bombs - went off in swift succession about 1 p.m., killing 42 people and wounding 141 others, including 10 U.S. soldiers. The bombs targeted a ceremony in which residents were celebrating the opening of a new sewage system, and a U.S. convoy was passing by at the same time, said Interior Ministry spokesman Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman.

"The Americans called us, they told us, 'Come here, come here,' asking us if we wanted sweets. We went beside them, then a car exploded," said 12-year-old Abdel Rahman Dawoud, lying naked in a hospital bed with shrapnel embedded all over his body.

The bomb exploded at a ceremony to open a new sewage plant:

Residents said a ceremony to open a new water and sewage plant was taking place when the attack occurred.
[...]
Not only is the overall picture inside Iraq bleak, so increasingly is the independent assessment of progress in the country's reconstruction.

Almost daily, new reports and studies highlight the slow pace of rebuilding, and the dilemmas posed by the security crisis. With both Western and Iraqi hostages being held, the mere threat of kidnapping has become enough to prevent all but the most essential movement outside fortified compounds.

The "insurgents," when they aren't attacking reconstruction projects directly, are forcing the Americans to divert resources away from the crucial project to rebuilding that shattered country. The left cheers on the terrorists (did I mention that Michael Moore called them "minutemen"?), and savages the Americans for not "fixing" Iraq quickly enough.

And Iraqis are caught in the middle. In this evening's debate, I don't want to see blind optimism from Bush or confused flip-flopping from Kerry - I want to see a serious discussion of what must be done.

Posted by damian at September 30, 2004 12:53 PM