Where is the peace? (Ithaca newspaper mourns loss of Saddam)

Ithaca Journal ^ | Originally published Saturday, March 20, 2004 | Gannett News Service

[Behind Liberal Lines]

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- An old Arab proverb says tyranny is better than anarchy.

A year after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, Iraqis have scarcely had a day free of bedlam. That point was driven home Wednesday with the devastating bombing of a hotel in central Baghdad that killed dozens of people just two days before the war's one-year anniversary.

Perhaps the worst day of violence was March 2, when suicide bombers attacked Shiite shrines in the holy city of Karbala and in Baghdad, killing more than 180 people.

That attack, more than any other, has raised an important question on the ground in Iraq now: Can the center hold against the rampant violence intended to plunge Iraq into civil war by fomenting sectarian violence?

While civil war remains unlikely, another major spike in violence could exacerbate the raging ill will toward U.S. troops here struggling to restore security. Within minutes of the Karbala bombing, U.S. soldiers were forced to retreat from stone-throwing mobs.

"What do the Americans do? They don't help us; they sit behind their walls," Mahatr al-Salem said as he poked around a Baghdad store. "We protect ourselves."

Bahrel Khartul blames the March 2 bombing, in part, on U.S. troops and their inability to keep the nation secure. "They can't secure our cities, but we must do what they say."

[NativeNewYorker]

Gannett reporters who were too illiterate and shallow to work for USA Today.

Actually, the first managing editor of USAT was my old boss at the IJ. A slovenly, unthinking hack.

[Behind Liberal Lines]

IS THAT WHERE IT WAS??

Yay-up.

[NativeNewYorker]

Gannett must feel their monopoly rag in a trivial burg can do anything.

[Teacher317]

A year after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, Iraqis have scarcely had a day free of bedlam.

25 years before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq on March 19, 2003, Iraqis have scarcely had a day free of torture, rape rooms, mass murder, political purges, suppression, and unjust imprisonments....

but that hardly matters. A Republican is in the White House, and we must smear him!