Iraq Explodes

Iraq Explodes

Suicide bombers carried out twin assaults Thursday
on one of Shiite Islam's most sacred sites and a police recruitment center,
killing at least 130 people and wounding hundreds.

Five American soldiers were also killed by a roadside
bomb in the capital, the U.S. military said.

The attacks on the Shiite holy city of Karbala, about
60 miles southwest of Baghdad, and Ramadi, the capital of Iraq's Sunni-dominated
Anbar province in the west, contributed to what was one of the bloodiest days
since the U.S.-led invasion of the country in 2003.

The day's attacks almost tripled the losses inflicted
Wednesday when insurgents assaulted a funeral procession for a Shiite Arab
politician's nephew in Muqdadiyah and carried out several smaller attacks.

At least 80 Sunni Arabs were killed and 61 wounded
when two suicide bombers detonated explosive vests outside the recruiting
center at Ramadi's glass and ceramics factory, said Majeed Tikriti, a doctor
in Ramadi's hospital. In an e-mailed statement, U.S. military authorities
said that only 30 people had been killed in the attack. A hospital official
in Karbala said 54 had died there.

Gunmen also ambushed and killed four Iraqi police officers
in Baqubah, north of Baghdad, an Iraqi government spokesman said.

In Ramadi, over 1,000 men had gathered at the center
to apply for newly opened jobs with the Iraqi police, Marine Capt. Jeffrey
S. Pool said in an e-mailed statement. Then a suicide bomber detonated an
explosive vest in the middle of the crowd, witnesses and Iraqi police said.
…

Iraq
Blasts Kill at Least 130 Iraqis, 5 U.S. Soldiers

While carnage continues in Iraq, we are gifted with inanities
by George.

“Those who want to stop the progress of freedom
are becoming more and more marginalized.” - Bush (CNN)

Oh, and the president is also deigning to talk
with former secretaries of state to get their advice. Three years into a
war and now the president is seeking opinions from people other than his Dick
and Rummy? Wow, I'm almost speechless.