Suicide car bomb kills 24 in Tikrit

[ECH1969]

BAGHDAD - A suicide car bomb exploded in a small market near a police station in Saddam Hussein’s hometown on Wednesday, killing at least 24 people and wounding 70, police said.

Police Lt. Col. Saad Daham said that security prevented the attacker from exploding the vehicle in front of the police station, but that the bomber swerved into a crowd of people at the nearby market.

Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad, is a mostly Sunni city where Saddam and many of his relatives came from.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7777352/

[Bozita]

1. ABC Nightline: "More suicide bombers now than ever before"

I heard it less than an hour ago.

[blogbear]

2. Ugly business!

[daleo]

3. There's a special on this month. n/t

[CoffeeCat]

4. Didn't Nightline ROCK????

I couldn't believe what I was seeing on Nightline!

One guy adamantly stated that our presence in Iraq is causing more terrorism and fostering more hatred among Americans. This guy was articulate and dead serious.

Ted tried to take the wind out of his sails by saying, "But I would make the argument that we want those terrorists in Iraq and not on American or European soil, where they could commit acts of terror."

The spokesperson (sorry I don't know his name) shot back and told Ted that his viewpoint was very narrow. He reiterated that we are fostering terror for the US and galvanizing our enemies--and that this hatred for us could translate into attacks on US soil AND in Iraq.

The OTHER guest plainly said that we need to get out of Iraq NOW--cut our losses and leave before we cause more damage. He kept repeating that.

I didn't catch the entire show, but one point that clearly struck me, was about the number of foreign fighters pouring in. We've created a anti-American mecca that is on their home turf! Suicide bombers, jihadists and suicide bombers now have a geographic target for venting their rage at American policies.

We can't win this. We absolutely cannot. Things are getting worse and worse as more foreign fighters spill in from Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

GREAT SHOW tonight.

[Bozita]

9. Yep, we threaten Syria; yet more Saudis are involved in Iraq terrorism

We threaten Syria on issues regarding their border with Iraq.

The Saudis topped the televised Nightline list of alien terrorists operating in Iraq but we never again heard about the Saudi "insurgents."

Hey! The US, the world's only superpower, can't control its own borders.

But Syria should.

Hhhmmmm.

[Erika]

5. What a screw up and why are we there

I daily check www.icasualties.org. When are the politicians going to stop this insanity? When are they going to quit spending our money on it?

We have health needs, infrastructure needs, etc. but they still spend our monies elsewhere. Bush said today, he was going to give 1 Billion dollars to the hospitals for illegal care. How about our citizens who can't afford medical care?

Don't ever buy his story that he is an American president, he wishes to be the first world globalist king and we are only pawns with our taxes in his chessgame.

[Skittles]

7. republicans will never admit to a mistake

even the biggest foreign policy bluder in history. We have to kick those bastards out of office.

[ECH1969]

6. The Sunnis aren't going to be sheltering

foreign fighters in Tikrit for some time to come. These were Sunnis who were buchered.

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. I don't think it is that simple

We have been lead to think of all of this in terms of 3 ethnic groups. I doubt it is that simple, if it were simple this would have been resolved already.

[ECH1969]

10. Whats not that simple?

A suicide bomber (almost certainly a foreigner) trying to attack Iraqi police missed and killed and wounded a hell of alot of Sunnis. Sure most of of the killed and wounded might not have supported the insurgency, but members of their friends and families who know something out where a group of foreigners are hanging out might be pissed and leave a tip on the new hotline that ends up getting the foreigners taken down.

The Iraqis don't like the jihadists or the Americans in Iraq. But, what has happened is the Shia and Kurds have allowed us to stay in Iraq to combat the Sunnis and foreign fighters. And, the Sunnis have allowed the jihadists to stay in their areas to fight the Sunnis, Shia, Kurds, and Americans.

There is alot of using going on in this war.

[The_Casual_Observer]

11. "almost certainly a foreigner"

According to who? NPR?


Oh, and BTW,

"Tikrit among a crowd of mainly Shi'ite migrant workers from southern Iraq who had gathered to try to find work on construction sites"

It's not so simple.

[ECH1969]

12. Sunnis really don't tend to blow themselves up

You can watch this CBS News report for the night and pay a bit better attention to the situtation.

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?channel=eveningnews&clip=/media/2005/05/10/video694360&sec=3420&vidId=3420&title=Targeting$@$Iraq's$@$Foreigners&hitboxMLC=eveningnews

The Sunni insurgents rarely if ever do these suicide operations, they aren't movtivated by religious extremism. Yes, there are some that break the rule, but so far they have been pretty few and far between.

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. Pardon me, but your first assumption about who was killed was wrong,

so what am I to think about the other?

[ECH1969]

14. What?

This is Saddam's hometown where the vast majority of the population are Sunnis. There may have been Shia who were killed in the mix, but it is pretty hard to believe there weren't Sunnis around.

[Frederik]

15. My impression

about at least the Sunnis in the western area where the fighting is going on now, is that everyone supports the insurgency. One village warns the next by turning off all the lights in the village - this is a popular uprising, not a bunch of Syrians fighting jihad, which is what the military wants us to think.

[pie]

17. I get the exact same impression

[Bozita]

16. It was even simpler before we moved on Iraq

There was little discussion of the various tribal/ethnic groups before we invaded.

It was all so simple: US=good; Saddam=bad.

How very cowboy-like.