Another market bombed in Baghdad.

[RussSchultz]

Am I just looking through rose colored glasses and trying to find a link where there's not, but isn't it just damn convinient that the "US" manages to bomb another crowded marketplace, during the day?

I wonder if it just so happens to be in a Shia part of town?

Regardless, it sure makes good PR for the Iraqi government. I wonder if there's a connection?

 

[MrsSkywalker]

I suppose I'm wearing those same kind of glasses, b/c it strikes me as incredibly "interesting" that it took Hussein's herd over 6 hours to let the press in to photograph the destruction from the other day.

Also "interesting" is the fact that no shrapnel was provided. I mean, it seems to me if you were trying to point the finger at the US, then any evidence found would be worth it's weight in gold and promptly broadcast on every news channel you could scrounge up.

Peculiar, indeed.

 

[Vince]

Also "interesting" is the fact that no shrapnel was provided.

Exactly. When a Tomahawk or CALCM impacts a target; it leaves behind significant amount of it's airframe - the structure itself, the airbreathing engines, and fragments of it's electronic suite.

Add to that the time of day, type of impact observed, and the relative "shadyness" involved - I think the truth behind this is clear.

 

[RussSchultz]

Not to be too much of a armchair munitions expert, but the crater shown in the pictures (assuming that crater is where the bomb/cruise missile hit) looks very shallow.

More like what a large car bomb would do, than a bomb falling at terminal velocity.

 

[MrsSkywalker]

More like what a large car bomb would do, than a bomb falling at terminal velocity.

I totally agree. The front of the building was blasted off, like the Oklahoma City bomb. I would think, with the type of missles and bombs we have been using, that the building would:

1. Have a hole in the outside wall (or roof), then blasted to smitherines guts.
2. Be totally demolished.

I have seen nothing we have dropped so far that would simply blast the outside wall off a building... I'm sure we could if we wanted to, but i would think that an errant bomb or missle would still impact and cause the same type of damage as if it was on course.

 

[nutball]

Also "interesting" is the fact that no shrapnel was provided. I mean, it seems to me if you were trying to point the finger at the US, then any evidence found would be worth it's weight in gold and promptly broadcast on every news channel you could scrounge up.

Peculiar, indeed.

They will do that eventually. As in they will pick up bits of Tomahawk from places where Tomahawks have hit (ie. genuine miltary targets hit weeks ago) and will scatter them around their marketplaces.

Bombing your own markets for propaganda pruposes is not new, the Croats did it during the Balkan conflict.

 

[Mariner]

To play Devil's advocate, though:

We are all a bit far removed to consider everything bad that occurs as propaganda, aren't we?

Or are we to assume that those missiles/guided bombs always hit their target and never cause any civilian casualties?

Bear in mind that the Iraqis will try to put anything the allied forces might target as deep in residential areas as possible.

 

[antlers]

It doesn't matter who did the actual bombing. It's still the US's fault because we started the war.

You might not see it that way, but that's the way the Iraqis and the rest of the Arab world will see it. Same with whatever atrocities Hussein's desperate men may commit--it's all our fault, because we picked to start the war at this particular time.

Freedom seems an awfully abstract concept when you have buildings blowing up around you and heavily armed bands of men roaming and shooting people. If we hadn't decided to invade Iraq, this would not be happening.

I'm sure in years to come many Iraqis might decide it was worth the price to be free of the murderous Ba'ath regime. However, right about now they are probably feeling resentful that the choices requiring them to pay that price were made with no input from them, by politicians thousands of miles away, and for reasons that really had very little to do with the aspirations of the Iraqi people.

 

[Sxotty]

The first incident, was described by a NY times reporter who was there as being way smaller and insignificant compared to the blast created by said munitions. He admitted that he had no idea if it was done by the Iraqi's falling missles, planted bombs (that they have planted on civillian buildings) or a piece of malfunctioning US ordinace that did not have the impact it was supposed to.

If you want to hear what this guy says btw listen to the News Hour With Jim Lehrer they usually let him talk for about 10-15 minutes I think. He is from England, and he said while he was at the market while the protests were going on some Iraqi's asked where he was from he said the england and they said England good country, his collegeu had the same experience (but from the US) in any case he did not say see this proves the Iraqi's love us, but he did say it proves they either A) can simply differentiate from a country(populace) and a government, or B) their portrayed animousity is a bunch of hype.

Oh and Saddam always has roving armed men btw who terrorize the populace.

 

[Sxotty]

I saw a picture of the crater made by the coalition ordinance supposedly, there was a car about 10 feet from it that was relatively undamaged and the crater was 1 foot deep and 6 feet wide, I have to say it was a pretty ineefective bomb.