Crime as Lethal as Warfare in Iraq -LAT

[Rose Siding]

snip>
"The cases we are getting are unbelievable," Dr. Taha Qassim says. "Huge crimes, assassinations, beheadings. Why, only today I dissected three beheaded bodies. We will probably break the record for beheaded cadavers in any forensic department in the world."

As Iraq's newly elected leaders cobble together the foundation of a fledgling democracy, a killing epidemic has taken hold of this troubled nation. Ministry of Health statistics show that record numbers of Iraqi civilians are coming to violent ends, particularly here in the capital.

Assassinations and bombings have garnered worldwide attention. But Iraqi officials say violence unrelated to the insurgency is growing, and Iraqis are more likely to die at the hands — or in the cross-fire — of kidnappers, carjackers and angry neighbors than in car bombings.

In some cases, authorities say, the motives are so opaque that they cannot tell whether they are investigating a crime disguised as an act of war or a political assassination masquerading as a violent business dispute.

In Baghdad alone, officials at the central morgue counted 8,035 deaths by unnatural causes in 2004, up from 6,012 the previous year, when the U.S. invaded Iraq. In 2002, the final year of Saddam Hussein's regime, the morgue examined about 1,800 bodies.........

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-crime20mar20,0,1367366.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[etherealtruth]

1. Violence and horror...

I doubt the victims care who the perpetrators are. Violence and horror are violence and horror.

[Rose Siding]

3. The world is safer, george told us yesterday

There are 6,235 people in Baghdad alone who would have disputed that assertion.

[etherealtruth]

4. ...and there's no global warming...

...geez, I am ignorant sometimes.

[dArKeR]

2. Does Lush Limbutt, Pill O'Pervert, or any other GOP media ever

mention facts as these?

[Lydia Guerra]

5. Perhaps we could send the well armed and numerous

defenders of Chicago's Magnificent Mile to keep order in Iraq! They were covered from head to foot with kevlar, guns, sticks, mace, cuffs, etc. Chicago's Finest, joined by County and State military police, ordered out by Mayor (Bush) Daley, may be just the kind of force needed to quell the crime wave in Iraq. They sure put the lid on the criminal and violent intentions of, um, of, um, us radical Peace-niks!

[MichiganVote]

6. Shhhh....haven't you heard? They're all insurgents

[Lydia Guerra]

10. Oops. Mums the word. (n/t)

[salin]

7. wasn't there a story earlier today - about US troops

letting perps of some of these violent crimes go - in order to attempt to get info on insurgents?

[Flammable Materials]

8. Remind me again how they were not better off under Saddam. n/t

[Zerex71]

9. ...and all thanks to George Bush!

If that asshole had never dropped one bomb or fired one gun, none of this would have ever started. Remember that.

[Lydia Guerra]

11. Thanks for the reminder. I will remember. (n/t)