Freedom Marches On

Iraqi casualties in a country of 26 million:

3,000 in June alone.

6,000 in May and June.

14,000 the first half of 2006.

And it's just starting:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - A Sunni driver lures Shiites into a van by promising jobs - then blows it up, killing 53 people. Sunni gunmen spray bullets and grenades at shoppers, not caring that they include women and children. Shiite death squads roam Baghdad streets, singling out and slaughtering Sunnis.

The new unity government of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds was supposed to bring Iraqis together. Instead, sectarian bloodletting is spiraling out of control.

In the last two days alone, more than 120 people were killed in two spectacular examples of Sunni-Shiite violence - 53 in the suicide van bombing Tuesday in Kufa and 50 in the massacre Monday in the market in Mahmoudiya.

Since then, at least 19 more have been slain in Mahmoudiya in what police say were reprisals for the market massacre. Their bodies were found by police, scattered in different parts of town.

Where are the Iraqi security forces, you say? Via Laura Rozen:

Jamie Tarabay's NPR report on the Iraqi security forces is revealing. A Pittsburgh-native American soldier tries to encourage the local police force to go out on patrol. After half an hour, he can only round up two Iraqi police officers, who claim not to have any vehicles. They are wearing baseball caps and memorabilia showing allegiance to Muqtada al-Sadr. The town they are going on patrol in is Sunni.

Tell me again why we invaded Iraq?

Image: AP Photo/Alaa al-Marjani.

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