Iraqi Church Siege Over: Upate III

Twelve terrorists were arrested in Iraq for their role in the church siege last month.  They appear to belong to a group called the Islamic State of Iraq.  And Al-Qa'eda in Iraq also belongs to that group.

Iraqi Church Siege Over: Upate II

The Christians in Iraq have had a rough time since the war started.  Now a bunch of them are dead because of the church siege.  According to recent reports, 41 Christians died (2 of them were priests) and 78 may have been wounded.  The monsignor of the church says only 25 were wounded, and another government official says 60.  At this point, I have no idea who is correct.  What we do know is that the Christian population of Iraq is rapidly shrinking.

Iraqi Church Siege Over: Upate I

Wow.  It's amazing how things can change over night.  The news this morning says that 52 people died during the siege, and most of the deaths occurred when the security forces stormed the church.  They're not sure right now exactly who shot the hostages, but there are a lot of people dead and injured.  And Iraqi Christians are very concerned about their safety.

Iraqi Church Siege Over

Last night gunmen attacked the Iraqi stock exchange, then took over a church after running from security forces.  One hundred people were held hostage for about 4 hours.  One or two policemen were killed, and about a dozen people were wounded.  One of the hostages may also have been killed (reports are conflicting).

Iraq has really become a dangerous place.  In general, I was all for the US troops getting out of Iraq.  But at the same time, I am worried that the Iraqi military and police forces may not yet be up to the job of securing Iraq.  It would be horrible if this turned into something like the civil war in Lebanon.  There are already problems between the Sunni and Shi'ites, with Iran right next door, and Syria has even gotten involved.  And the Kurds in the north would be happy to break away.  Throw in some al-Qa'eda militants and opportunistic criminals and mix vigorously.  It could take another decade for everything to settle down into some kind of stability.

Ghettoization of Baghdad

ABC News is reporting that the US Army is putting up concrete walls in Baghdad, separating Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods. What the hell kind of solution is that? People aren't getting along, so we'll put a wall between them - "good fences make good neighbors?" So now we can separate all neighborhoods into only Sunni or only Shiite, so that if anyone of the other religious sect goes into the wrong neighborhood they can get beat up. So that if anyone of the other religious sect wants to bomb someone, they know this neighborhood is all one sect. Yee-haw! Why bother trying to get people to live together and cooperate, when we can divide them along sectarian lines.