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Thread: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

  1. #1
    breath westofyou's Avatar
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    Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050914/ts_nm/iraq_dc

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A suicide bomber lured a crowd of Shi'ite Muslim day laborers to his minivan and blew it up in Baghdad on Wednesday, killing 114 people in the bloodiest of a wave of attacks that took more than 150 lives in the capital.

    He drew the men to his vehicle with promises of work before detonating the bomb, which contained up to 500 pounds (220 kg) of explosives, an interior ministry source said.

    It was the second deadliest single attack since the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003, and comes after days of fighting between Iraqi and U.S. troops and Sunni rebels in the remote town of Tal Afar in which some 160 people have died.


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    Member ochre's Avatar
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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    Shi'a muslims have concerned the US for a long time because they are revolutionaries by nature. Disenfranchised Sunni are going to prove them to be moderate indeed.
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  4. #3
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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    Sad. I'd be curious to know the bomber's background. How did he get into a group that has its people kill themselves while murdering countless others? What kind of a religion/cult teaches that it is okay to murder? And murdering his own people... if he was an Iraqi.

    Used to be a time when the Sunnis took Shiites out in the desert and put a bullet in their head before bulldozing dirt over their dead bodies. Reports have been written where thousands would disappear at a time. The big difference at that time was the leader of Iraq was behind it or approved it.

    I find it a bit troubling that yahoo.com would throw in the last paragraph with this story. To read their statement might lead some to believe that those 160 dead were innocent job seekers like the 114 that were murdered by a spineless suicide bomber. I read elsewhere that most of those 160 dead in Tal Afar were the types that kill 114 innocent job seekers.

  5. #4
    SERP Emeritus paintmered's Avatar
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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    Most suicide bombers utilized in Iraq are Saudi, Egyptian, Syrian or Jordanian.

    Less than 10% are actually Iraqi.
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  6. #5
    Member ochre's Avatar
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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    Quote Originally Posted by paintmered
    Most suicide bombers utilized in Iraq are Saudi, Egyptian, Syrian or Jordanian.

    Less than 10% are actually Iraqi.
    what % of those are Sunni? I'm guessing its probably approaching 100%. If I'm not mistaken, bin Laden is also a Sunni. The Iran hostage situation caused the US government to take a hard stance against Shi'a, up to and including the backing of the ostensibly Sunni Sadaam Hussein. That was seen as especially significant in Iraq, as the Shi'a are the majority there. The premise being that shi'a, due to their revolutionary (religious anarchy type) reputation, were a destabalizing factor in the region. The Sunni sect viewed as more stable, largely due to the fact that it has long been the sect that has administered and governed throughout the region, is no less radical by Western standards. From what I have seen/am seeing the Sunnis are going to be more trouble for the west than the long feared Shi'a revolution that the West has railed against for ~30+ years.
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  7. #6
    SERP Emeritus paintmered's Avatar
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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    Quote Originally Posted by ochre
    what % of those are Sunni? I'm guessing its probably approaching 100%.
    I don't have an exact number (and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to post it here), but my understanding is they comprise the vast majority of Iraqi suicide bombers (to nobody's suprise).

    I'd say above 80-85%.
    Last edited by paintmered; 09-14-2005 at 04:31 PM.
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    Member ochre's Avatar
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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    What you will begin to see Paint, is that the arbitrary borders established by the Allied powers between and after world wars have little meaning to the natives of the region. They are much more tied to tribal and religious affiliations. Above that, they value other (moslim) Arabs over non-Arabs, so you have a sort of stratified system. The Sunni are used to being the leaders of an enlightened, advanced, muslim culture. The last couple hundred years have been tough/shocking for them. Their reaction to that hasn't been/won't be pretty. All of that is compounded by what they see as "foreign" intervention. It will get worse before it gets better.
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    Member pedro's Avatar
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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    I'm pretty sure Bin Laden is a Wahhabist, but I''m not sure if that is means he can't also be considered a Sunni.
    School's out. What did you expect?

  10. #9
    SERP Emeritus paintmered's Avatar
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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    Quote Originally Posted by ochre
    What you will begin to see Paint, is that the arbitrary borders established by the Allied powers between and after world wars have little meaning to the natives of the region. They are much more tied to tribal and religious affiliations. Above that, they value other (moslim) Arabs over non-Arabs, so you have a sort of stratified system. The Sunni are used to being the leaders of an enlightened, advanced, muslim culture. The last couple hundred years have been tough/shocking for them. Their reaction to that hasn't been/won't be pretty. All of that is compounded by what they see as "foreign" intervention. It will get worse before it gets better.
    Well said.

    And despite alot of media attention to the increase of suicide attacks, they have decreased each of the previous three months. Now they have increased in magnitude thanks to outside expertise and materials being smuggled into the country, but the actual number of attacks has decreased.
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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    Quote Originally Posted by paintmered
    Well said.

    And despite alot of media attention to the increase of suicide attacks, they have decreased each of the previous three months. Now they have increased in magnitude thanks to outside expertise and materials being smuggled into the country, but the actual number of attacks has decreased.
    In other words, they are getting more bang for their buck.

  12. #11
    The Mad Monk Jaycint's Avatar
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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    Quote Originally Posted by pedro
    I'm pretty sure Bin Laden is a Wahhabist, but I''m not sure if that is means he can't also be considered a Sunni.
    For the record Wahhabism is a fundamentalist branch of Sunni Islam. Bin Laden is thought to follow wahhabism.

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    Re: Meanwhile in a land far, far away.

    Quote Originally Posted by paintmered
    I don't have an exact number (and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to post it here), but my understanding is they comprise the vast majority of Iraqi suicide bombers (to nobody's suprise).

    I'd say above 80-85%.
    So someone blows himself up (isn't that a suicide bomber?) How can the government tell what country or religious sect he is?


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