My god this is good news. At least I assume so.
From Coalition casualty Count
02/11/04 US convoy targeted in Ramadi
An improvised bomb exploded under a vehicle in a US military convoy in the centre of the western Iraqi flashpoint town of Ramadi Wednesday, but there was no information on casualties, witnesses said.
02/11/04 3 American Soldiers Wounded
The U.S. military said three American soldiers were wounded by a roadside bomb near the northern city of Kirkuk.
02/11/04 Reuters: Deaths Bomb Now at 47
A suicide car bomb killed 47 people at an army recruitment center in Baghdad Wednesday.
02/11/04 SPA: Five Spanish soldiers Wounded In Bomb Attack
Five Spanish soldiers have been wounded in a bomb attack in central-southern Iraq, the Defence Ministry said Wednesday
But that's not up to date because the NYTimes has
Two U.S. Soldiers Killed, One Wounded in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Feb 12 - A roadside bomb killed two U.S. soldiers in Baghdad, the U.S. military said on Thursday
And the anti US campaign is working on the Iraqi mind, the message is getting through that the CPA and its associates are a death sentence. From the WAPO
Fearful Iraqis Weigh Working With U.S
Samples
After two bombings in less than 24 hours killed at least 100 people at recruiting sites for the country's new security forces, many Iraqis are questioning the wisdom and safety of seeking work with institutions that support the U.S.-led occupation.
[...]
I thought being in the army would be an honorable job . . . but now I have no interest anymore and I will stop all my family and friends from joining. It is not worth this danger," said Hussein Raad Zayeed, 20, who was wounded in Wednesday's attack. Zayeed said he would go back to selling cigarettes on the street, even though he will only earn one-fourth as much as army trainees, who are paid $120 a month.
[...]
"I came here to protect my country. I haven't done anything wrong to deserve this," said Saad Shalal, 27, whose feet were cut in the same attack. "If there will be any other job, I will go to it and never think about the army again."
[...]
a few hours after he arrived at the recruiting center, Zayeed was in a hospital bed, both his calves wrapped in bandages to stop the bleeding from shrapnel wounds. The car bomb, he said, had exploded while he was filling out his application, and he was cursing the day he ever saw the recruitment notices.
[...]
Abbas Fadhel Abbas, 26, said he and others were nervous about the possibility of a car bomb, especially after what happened in Iskandariyah the day before. "We asked the Americans if they will let us in and wait there inside, but they said no," Abbas said.
and if they let them inside, a bomber will go in with them and detonate himself there as well
[...]
They next thing he remembered was waking up at Yarmouk Hospital. Abbas was injured by a piece of metal that hit him the back of the neck, and doctors worried that he might suffer neurological damage. Yet he did not rule out persisting in his effort to join the army. His injuries, he said, will determine which path he'll take. "If God helps me and I can stand up again, I will go there again and join the army."
Holy god, if he can stand again, if he doesn't suffer neurological damage, he'll try again, because he has no alternative because George Bush decided that Abbas Fadhel Abbas, 26, would be so much better off with Saddam gone, even if there is zero work, no water, failing hospitals and again, no work. Doesn't Abbas Fadhel Abbas, 26, understand that this is the price he has to pay for his freedom? Does he understand that his dead friends and his crippled body are necessary so that Americans can sleep at night, because it is so much better that the fighting is done in Abbas' streets rather than NY or SF or Bug Tussle Arkansas?
Abbas, isn't that Arabic for flypaper? At least that's what Bush thinks.