The Bloodbath Continues

112 more die in Iraq. That makes a total of 700 in the last week alone:

The numbers are staggering: In the past eight days, 714 Iraqis have fallen victim to the country's sectarian bloodbath. They've been beheaded, tortured and blown up while looking for work. They've been shot, kidnapped and felled by mortars.

The number of killings in the past eight days is more than all but a few U.S. states see in a year. Iraq's death toll has reached at least 1,319 already in November, well above the 1,216 who died in all of October, which was the deadliest month in Iraq since The Associated Press began tracking the figure in April 2005.

If Americans or Britons were dying in such staggering numbers, there would be nothing to discuss. Yet in the face of such violence, the architects of this war are still arguing whether the Iraq war is a disaster or not.

Update:

Not only is Iraq a disaster, it's total chaos:

Gunmen shot and killed a television comedian Monday who was famous for mocking everyone from the Iraqi government to U.S. forces to Shiite militias to Sunni insurgents.

Walid Hassan's slaying came as the Iraqi death toll rose to more than 1,300 for the first 20 days of November — the highest for any month since The Associated Press began tracking the figure in April 2005.

In all, 22 Iraqis were killed Monday in a series of attacks in Baghdad, Ramadi and Baqouba, police said. The bodies of 26 Iraqis who had been kidnapped and tortured also were found on the streets of the capital, in Dujail to the north of Baghdad and in the Tigris River in southern Iraq.

Even comedians are getting killed now. No one is safe.

Image: AFP/Wissam Al Okaili.



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