> On Feb 1, 2:37 pm, Michae...@gmail.com wrote:
>
>
>

>> On Feb 1, 3:53 pm, Bret Cahill aol.com> wrote:

>

>>> That surge is turning Iraq into a regular utopia! John McCain ought
>>> to brag more about voting for the surge!

>

>>> Bret Cahill

>

>>>>http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,327445,00.html

>

>>>> Mentally Disabled Female Suicide Bombers Blow Up Pet Markets in Baghdad,
>>>> Killing Dozens
>>>> Friday, February 01, 2008

>

>>>> BAGHDAD - �Remote-controlled explosives strapped to two mentally retarded
>>>> women detonated in a coordinated attack on Baghdad pet bazaars Friday, Iraqi
>>>> officials said, killing at least 73 people in the deadliest day since the
>>>> U.S. sent 30,000 extra troops to the capital last spring.

>

>>>> The chief Iraqi military spokesman in Baghdad, Brig. Gen. Qassim
>>>> al-Moussawi, said the female bombers had Down syndrome and that the
>>>> explosives were detonated by remote control - indicating they may not having
>>>> been willing attackers in what could be a new method by suspected Sunni
>>>> insurgents to subvert stepped up security measures.

>

>>>> Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the use of mentally retarded women
>>>> as suicide bombers proves Al Qaeda is "the most brutal and bankrupt of
>>>> movements" and will strengthen Iraqi resolve to reject terrorism.

>

>>>> The first attack Friday occurred at about 10:20 a.m. in the central al-Ghazl
>>>> market. The weekly bazaar has been bombed several times since the war
>>>> started but recently had re-emerged as a popular place to shop and stroll as
>>>> Baghdad security improved and a Friday ban on driving was lifted.

>

>>>> Four police and hospital officials said at least 46 people were killed and
>>>> more than 100 wounded. Firefighters scooped up debris scattered among pools
>>>> of blood, clothing and pigeon carcasses.

>

>>>> About 20 minutes later, a second female suicide bomber struck a bird market
>>>> in a predominantly Shiite area in southeastern Baghdad. That blast killed as
>>>> many as 27 people and wounded 67, according to police and hospital
>>>> officials.

>

>>>> One witness who declined to be identified told AP Television News that the
>>>> woman said she had birds to sell, then blew herself up as people gathered
>>>> around to inspect them.

>

>>>> The attacks were the latest in a series of violent incidents that have been
>>>> chipping away at Iraqi confidence in the permanence of recent security
>>>> gains.

>

>>>> Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said about 70 people were killed in both
>>>> attacks, which he said were committed by terrorists motivated by revenge and
>>>> "to show that they are still able to stop the march of history and of our
>>>> people toward reconciliation."

>

>>>> Police initially said the bomb at al-Ghazl market was hidden in a box of
>>>> birds but determined it was a suicide attack after finding the woman's head,
>>>> an officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he wasn't
>>>> authorized to release the information.

>

>>>> Pigeon vendor Ali Ahmed, who was hit by shrapnel in his legs and chest, said
>>>> he was worried about his friend who disappeared after the blast about 40
>>>> yards away.

>

>>>> "I just remember the horrible scene of the bodies of dead and wounded people
>>>> mixed with the blood of animals and birds, then I found myself lying in a
>>>> hospital bed," he said.

>

>>>> Navy Cmdr. Scott Rye, a U.S. military spokesman, gave lower casualty
>>>> figures, saying seven were killed and 23 wounded in the first bombing, and
>>>> 20 killed and 30 wounded in the second. He confirmed both attacks were
>>>> carried out by women wearing explosives vests and said the attacks appeared
>>>> to be coordinated and likely the work of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

>

>>>> Associated Press records show that since the start of the war at least 151
>>>> people have been killed in at least 17 attacks or attempted attacks by
>>>> female suicide bombers, including today's bombings.

>

>>>> The most recent was on Jan. 16 when a female suicide bomber detonated her
>>>> explosives as Shiites were preparing for a ceremony marking the holiday of
>>>> Ashoura in a Shiite village near the Diyala provincial capital of Baqouba.

>

>>>> Involving women in fighting violates cultural taboos in Iraq, but the U.S.
>>>> military has warned that Al Qaeda in Iraq is recruiting females and youths
>>>> to stage suicide attacks because militants are increasingly desperate to
>>>> thwart stepped-up security measures.

>

>>>> Women in Iraq often wear a black Islamic robe known as an abaya and can
>>>> avoid thorough searches at checkpoints because men are not allowed to search
>>>> them and there's a dearth of female guards.

>

>>>> In January 2005, Iraq's interior minister said that insurgents used a
>>>> disabled child as one of the suicide bombers who launched attacks on
>>>> election day. Police at the scene of the bombing said the child appeared to
>>>> have Down syndrome.

>

>>>> A bomb hidden in a box of small birds also exploded at the al-Ghazl market
>>>> in late November, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens. The U.S.
>>>> military blamed the November attack on Iranian-backed Shiite militants,
>>>> saying they had hoped Al Qaeda in Iraq would be held responsible for the
>>>> attack so Iraqis would turn to them for protection.

>

>>>> The U.S. military has been unable to stop the suicide bombings despite a
>>>> steep drop in violence in the past six months, but the explosions on Friday
>>>> were the deadliest in the capital since Aug. 1, when some 70 people were
>>>> killed in three attacks, including 50 in a fuel truck explosion in Baghdad.

>

>>>> Rae Muhsin, the 21-year-old owner of a cell phone store, said he was walking
>>>> toward the New Baghdad bird market in southeastern Baghdad when the blast
>>>> occurred, shattering the windows of nearby stores.

>

>>>> "I ran toward the bird market and saw charred pieces of flesh, small spots
>>>> of blood and several damaged cars," Muhsin said, adding he will no longer
>>>> visit the Friday market. "I thought that we had achieved real security in
>>>> Baghdad, but it turned that we were wrong."

>

>>>> The number of Iraqi civilians and security forces killed in January fell to
>>>> at least 609, an Associated Press tally showed, the lowest monthly death
>>>> toll since December 2005, and continuing a downward trend since the fall.
>>>> The figure as tabulated by Iraqi officials in the ministries of Defense,
>>>> Interior and Health was slightly lower, at 543.

>

>>>> U.S. forces, meanwhile, have expanded offensives in central and northern
>>>> Iraq, seeking to build on gains against Al Qaeda in Iraq in the past year.
>>>> But the latest campaigns also have driven up the military's death toll after
>>>> months of decline.

>

>>>> Two U.S. soldiers were killed Thursday - one by a roadside bomb in Baghdad
>>>> and another by a rocket or mortar attack on a convoy support center south of
>>>> the capital, the military reported.

>

>>>> The attacks raised to at least 39 the number of U.S. troops who died in
>>>> January - well above the 23 in December but still sharply lower than a year
>>>> ago. In January last year, 83 soldiers were killed in Iraq.

>

>> I took a different view of this.

>

>> The anti-war crowd often claim that the US is responsible for the
>> violence in Iraq. I.E. If we had never gone there, these people
>> would not be violent. That somehow what we are seeing is a semi-noble
>> almost patriotic response to our presence (defending their turf).
>> They often state that this type of violence would not happen if we
>> stayed out of the middle east (which is the counter point to the
>> argument that we are fighting them over there so we dont have to deal
>> with this sort of thing on US soil).

>

>> However, the most recent attack displays all the more clearly that
>> these terrorist are the scum of the earth. They were more then
>> willing to use the most innocent of people (their own people) to kill
>> some more of their own people. Their only aim is to cause unrest.
>> For people willing to slaughter two women with Down's syndrome, can
>> you really argue that they would not attack us on US soil if they had
>> the opportunity?-

>
> But this doesn't eliminate the "situational influences" just by
> justifiably mentioning "dispositional influences." The old saying
> about "bad apples" needs to be updated with the idea of the state of
> the "barrel" [bad barrel]. Some situations can create monsters from
> good people, this without much personal blame or responsibility.
>
> ....just the right dose of certain social situations can transform
> ordinarily good people into evildoers, as was the case with Iraqi
> prisoner abusers at Abu Ghraib, argued former APA president Philip G.
> Zimbardo, PhD, in a presidential-track program during APA's 2004
> Annual Convention in Honolulu.
>
> Indeed, Zimbardo--an emeritus psychology professor at Stanford
> University--highlighted how this Dr. Hyde transformation occurred
> among U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib by presenting classic psychology
> research on situational effects on human behavior.
>
> Zimbardo, who will be an expert witness for several of the U.S.
> soldiers on trial, argued that situations pull people to act in ways
> they never thought imaginable.
>
> "That line between good and evil is permeable," Zimbardo said. "Any of
> us can move across it....I argue that we all have the capacity for
> love and evil--to be Mother Theresa, to be Hitler or Saddam Hussein.
> It's the situation that brings that out."
>
> Seduced into evil
>
> In fact, the classic electric shock experiment by social psychologist
> Stanley Milgram, PhD, showed that when...
>
> http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct04/goodbad.htmlhttp://www.lucifereffect.com/about....