Another Major Bombing and a Convoy Trip

MSNBC headline

BAGHDAD, Iraq — An Iraqi carrying hidden explosives set them off inside a police recruitment center in northern Iraq on Wednesday, killing at least 50 people, according to the U.S. military.

Police said the final death toll could be much higher, and the Al Arabiya television station, quoting medical sources, said 60 Iraqis were killed.

>> Source Article [FOX NEWS]

But few people here will really give a shit. News like that has cascaded in off and on for two years. Mere numbers now. No faces. No images of victims to give people a grim understanding of what happens in each attack. All we get here are pictures of wreckage, verbal announcement of casualties (which frankly don't do the dead justice), and depending on circumstances around the incident such as timing or scope, the networks bring out retired military commanders to insist that this is a sign of "winning".

If these are signs of how we're winning, I'd hate to see what losing looks like.

But you have to respect the resolve both sides have put into their efforts, and the sacrifices made, even if they don't in the end add up to what people would want them to. And even the will power it takes to take part in the conflict for whichever side.

Semi-related piece:

...We are about to take a ride down Route Irish, the road that links the Green Zone with Camp Victory, the Coalition base surrounding the Baghdad Airport. Last week, as best we can tell, fifteen people died and seventeen were wounded on these six-and-a-half miles of road. In the past 48 hours there have been around 30 car-bombs in Iraq, almost half of them in Baghdad. It is enough to give pause.

The briefing ends. In silence, we turn to our assigned vehicles. As each arrives at his assigned seat for the ride, a light banter begins between the officers and the enlisted crews as the officers place their gear inside. Then each man draws from his ammo pouches a magazine of ammunition. The rhythm of metallic clicks as we chamber rounds in our weapons lasts for thirty seconds or so.

Leaving the Green Zone via Checkpoint Twelve involves the inevitable weaving through a serpentine. I am in the lead vehicle, my personal preference, which I indulge when appropriate, though I am sitting in the back seat this time. I am just a passenger for this ride. We accelerate slowly to provide the cars and HMMWVs behind us a chance to clear the weave and get on the ramp. I check my watch. Red Zone. It is 08:06:03.

Mostly you get small arms in this first section of the road. Quadisiya is the name of the section of town we pass first, on the right. The buildings are moderately well-off structures for Iraq. They are mostly two story affairs with flat roofs, though sometimes you will see strange architectural flares such as the bright green Japanese-style entry-way roof on one house about a half mile out of the Green Zone. We drive over a cluster of empty .50 cal shell casings and belt-links in the middle of the road, maybe a hundred rounds worth. Recent. We keep accelerating.

The road starts climbing. I hate this stretch, though it has been peaceful lately. What unsettles are the guard rails and fencing, all twisted and torn. Inward for the railings. Outward for the fencing. For about half a mile the road is lined with this unmistakable evidence of not just one, but dozens of IEDs in this short passage. This section of the road is raised and curving, so there is a touch of the claustrophobic as well. There is no where to go if you are hit.

>> "On the Road to Victory" [MSNBC]