The end result will be the deadly sort of nihilistic ennui that has settled upon Isreal and the occupied territories and also held Northern Ireland under its spell for so long. The neo-con's gift to the rest of this century.
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Troops Attacked in Baghdad in Fresh Signs of Resistance By PATRICK E. TYLER
AGHDAD, Iraq, June 1 — Gunmen firing rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles attacked an American military convoy late today in the neighborhood where Saddam Hussein made his last public appearance on April 9, the day the capital fell to allied forces.
At least one American soldier was wounded and one Iraqi civilian was killed in the firefight that erupted on the busy square in front of the Abu Hanifa mosque, according to an Iraqi hospital official who treated the wounded. Other medical workers said three Iraqi civilians were also injured.
"This is just the beginning!" shouted a woman who identified herself as Shahrezad, a bank manager. "You are our enemy. You entered Iraq searching for weapons, but where are the weapons?" she asked, referring to chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
Some residents cheered the attack, and said they longed for the return of Mr. Hussein. But others in the crowd said they were happy Mr. Hussein was gone, and blamed hard-line supporters of his Baath Party for firing on American forces.
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more at
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/02/international/worldspecial/02IRAQ.html?pagewanted=print&position=
Some Back Home Wonder, 'Why Are People Dying?' By MONICA DAVEY
Somewhere along the way, the military families had stopped bracing so hard for the possibility of terrible news. Baghdad was taken, the statues had toppled, and the war seemed to be winding down. So at home, the relatives of service members said they began to sleep more deeply and to eat again. Some turned off televisions that had run for weeks. A few dared to plan homecoming parties.
One day in late April, Mary Arnold opened an e-mail message and felt the first traces of relief settle in her. Her marine son, Andrew Todd Arnold, a chief warrant officer, was preparing to leave Iraq for Kuwait, the message said, where he would start cleaning up the 18 howitzers he had been responsible for. Surely this meant it was over.
"That morning, when I saw it in writing," Ms. Arnold said, "I thought, `O.K., God, thank you. He's made it.' "
Hours later, at 10:15 p.m., the doorbell rang at Ms. Arnold's home in Spring, Tex. She spotted two marines through the peephole, she said, and began to scream. Mr. Arnold, who signed up for service 11 years ago and who spent his downtime watching Nascar and fishing and listening to country music, died on a firing range with two other marines on April 22, when a rocket-propelled grenade launcher they were testing malfunctioned.
Even as Americans viewed the conflict with Iraq as mostly over and the nation's attention turned elsewhere, the Department of Defense reported the deaths of about 40 service members in the past six weeks. About three-fourths of the deaths came after May 1, the day President Bush formally declared the end of major combat operations. Deaths over the past six weeks were fewer than at the height of the struggle: three times as many Americans were killed in the month after the war began. But for families who had just begun to allow themselves to think their loved ones might be safe, the news was all the more jarring, the numbers impossible to consider.
"We won the war, so why are people dying?" asked Fran Stall, whose companion is the father of Sgt. Troy David Jenkins, who died on April 24. "I don't understand why this keeps happening. We have guys getting killed every day.
<snip>
more at
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/02/national/02DEAD.html?pagewanted=print&position=
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