Bombing in Baghdad

Iraqi Resistance-Fighters Bombs Baghdad

Bomb-laden vehicles exploded in Baghdad this week. One of the explosions left a crater in the street twenty feet deep and forty feet wide. Early reports indicate that at least ninety-five (95) people were killed, and between 300 and 400 were wounded.

US soldiers have been withdrawn to bases outside the cities, and turned over much of the police patrol duties to the Iraqi military. The US hope was that the fact of having US soldiers still within easy access would discourage any return to large-scale violence by the resistance fighters. The Baghdad bombings this week show that the US hope is not secure.

The explosions targeted the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Finance. This sends a clear signal that the objective is to attack the US-installed government. It also signals an attack on the foreign financial interests that are presently keeping that government in power.

After six years of war and occupation, residents of Baghdad still lack many basic services. Electricity is available only a few hours each day. Clean water is in short supply. In many places, raw sewage still flows into the street.

Aside from the larger political issues at stake, there is also a human crisis that demands attention. The many killed and the hundreds wounded in this week’s bombing are only news statistics in the US. But in Iraq, they are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, and children of Iraq citizens. They are people who were part of someone’s family.

For the Iraqi people and for much of the Muslim world, the significance of this invasion and occupation can not be reduced to the simple slogans used in US television news and US government statements. -- Long after the soldiers are gone, as they eventually must be gone, the wounds of Iraqi families will remain.