The Media

The NYTimes today has a story blaming the new plan (surge) for the widespread violence this weekend. In particular the suicide bombing that took place.

BAGHDAD, Feb. 4 — A growing number of Iraqis blamed the United States on Sunday for creating conditions that led to the worst single suicide bombing in the war, which devastated a Shiite market in Baghdad the day before. They argued that the Americans had been slow in completing the vaunted new American security plan, making Shiite neighborhoods much more vulnerable to such horrific attacks.

(Far be it from me to note that no plan anywhere in the world except perhaps a big wall has ever stopped a suicide bomber) (Whoops, too late, I already noted it!)

What I do want to officially note is the 'notes on the ground' version of what happened this weekend from Mohammed.

about a huge explosion in al-Sadriya market and casualty tolls were increasing every other minute—25, then 40, then 75…an hour later news was talking bout more than a hundred killed in what the media like to call a "predominantly Shia neighborhood".

Al-Sadriya doesn't belong to a certain sect; it's a commercial area where shoppers and shopkeepers are simply Baghdadis but sadly the media is keen on adding sectarian descriptions of the attacked targets in their reports. These descriptions draw the path for blind retaliators who in this case shortly responded by showering what the media calls "predominantly Sunni neighborhoods" with mortars to kill and wound dozens.

Remember that part, "but sadly the media is keen on adding sectarian descriptions of the attacked targets in their reports.......for blind retaliators......"

So then what happens? Well just what Mohammed predicted.

Sunni neighborhood attacked

More than 70 people were reported killed, including 42 whose corpses were dumped around the city and 15 killed in the mortar barrage against Adhamiya, a Sunni neighborhood that is typically targeted in the aftermath of bombings against Shiite neighborhoods.

It's getting pretty bad when people can predict bad reporting and the results of such before it actually happens!