3 Us Troops Killed 16 Wounded 19 Iraqis

3 US Troops Killed, 16 Wounded
19 Iraqis Dead, 33 Wounded in Muqdadiya Bombing

The wire services reported at least 55 killed in political violence in Iraq on Tuesday, with hundreds wounded.

Guerrillas detonated a car bomb near Baghdad University in the south of the capital, killing 5 persons and wounding 11.

Guerrillas deployed a roadside bomb to kill 3 US troops on Monday, wounding a fourth.

Gun battles in central Baghdad left scores wounded, including 15 US troops. The clashes in two Sunni Arab neighborhoods lasted all day and left 20 guerrillas dead. All but three of the injured US troops were able to return to duty fairly quickly.

In Muqdadiya northeast of Baghdad, a woman detonated her belt bomb amidst a crowd of applicants for work as policemen outside a police station, killing 19 and wounding at least 33.

Police found three bodies in Mosul and two near Kirkuk– victims of sectarian hatred.

Discontent among Iraq’s Shiites with the situation in their country is now rife, even though they had initially been overjoyed at the fall of Saddam.

Pelosi and Lantos are thinking seriously of trying to make a trip to Iran, according to the SF Chronicle. I still cannot entirely figure out where all this diplomacy is coming from among the AIPAC Democrats. But it is obviously a complete revolt against the Neoconservative philosophy, wherein the natural thing would be to try to overthrow the Iranian government, not dicker with it.

Tom Engelhardt on how the Bush administration destabilized the Arc of Instability.

Gary Kamiya at Salon.com on “Why the Media Failed” in the run-up to the Iraq War. The sad thing is, I doubt the situation would be much different today. The information system in the US is corrupt. Many reporters I know in the corporate media deeply resent their bosses and editors, whom they often view as rightwing hacks.