Please, let's go home
Iraq ... a poophole from the darkest reaches of hell. The London Times reports that it has become dangerous to be Sunni and in a hospital anywhere near Baghdad or Shia Health Ministry officials: your life can be bought for $300.
Basically, what is happening is this: a doctor or porter or someone phones over to the Health Ministry, which is loyal to Muqtada al Sadr (the Shiite cleric responsible for some pretty extreme stuff), and tells someone that there is a Sunni patient in the hospital. Next thing you know, one of the following happens: (1) the patient is mysteriously found dead in his or her bed; (2) the patient has simply disappeared; (3) the patient has been transferred to another "hospital" although nobody quite knows where; or (4) the patient is found in the morgue.
Various doctors (both Shia and Sunni) have been approached to participate in the reporting scheme, as well as any number of hospital staff. A doctor reports that he was approached and shown vials of drugs used to stop the heart for open heart surgery, as well as potassium chloride, the killer of choice for the Texas Department of Corrections. Bands of Shia ministry officials scour the hospitals of Iraq (or at least where they feel safe that Sunni militia members won't just gun them down), looking for new clients. For $300 per candidate. Mass murder and the price is $300.
Why in the name of all the is holy and good are we protecting elements of a society in which this sort of slaughter becomes an item of trade? And it is not that one side is better than the other -- if we were to arm the Sunnis in a civil war, our payback would be Al Qaeda bases in Iraq. If we were to step back and let the Shia have their way, our payback would be Iran that much closer to Israel, Iran in control of the Gulf oil supplies, and Iran using Iraq as a training ground for more Hezbooloonie types to commit other atrocities elsewhere.
This situation is not going to be defused by a larger US presence there. There is FAR too much water under the bridge, both in Saddam's days and since. We have to let them kill each other (less staff for the victor of any US backed party to turn on us) until there are no blood-thirsty cretins left. Pull back and let the Saudis, and other Sunnis arm and finance the slaughter of the Shia and Iran train and finance the slaughter of the Sunnis until they are spent -- on both sides. Claim a U*N protectorate and defend the borders of Iraq, that way we can chop up as many Iranians and Syrians as we can as they head towards the front of the "civil war." For it is not really a civil war, but a proxy war with Iran and the Saudis/Egypt etc. on opposing sides.
Meanwhile our friend Putin looks more and more the culprit. Turns out his bodyguard was poisoned in 2004 by a substance that now looks startlingly similar to P210. And what a mess!!! Traces of the stuff have been found absolutely everywhere -- it looks like it is not quite as easy to use as the spy masters may have thought, or that the staff is far clumsier than they needed to be. If the late is the case, look for another few "suicides" in the near future. You know how careless those ex-KGB/FSB personnel are ... pretty depressed too.
Which brings me to something rather grisly: how long do you suppose before someone on one side of the Iraqi conflict decides that it might be a clever thing to put P210 or some such in the water supply for ... say Sadr City? Wouldn't take much, the effects would hit after substantially everyone was aware of the attack and the results would be both long term and devastating. Firstly, huge numbers of people would die nasty deaths, and you simply couldn't just change the water or let it run to clean out the pipes. Better than any form of bomb or bio-bug that prevents you from going in there ... you just can't drink the water, but in terms of population, it is just as effective as nerve gas, or a large neutron bomb. Better actually, beause you tie up so much of the resources of the target population while you are accomplishing your goals. Is it too horrible to contemplate? Clearly not, when we consider the notion of patients for sale for $300.
Sleep well.
Basically, what is happening is this: a doctor or porter or someone phones over to the Health Ministry, which is loyal to Muqtada al Sadr (the Shiite cleric responsible for some pretty extreme stuff), and tells someone that there is a Sunni patient in the hospital. Next thing you know, one of the following happens: (1) the patient is mysteriously found dead in his or her bed; (2) the patient has simply disappeared; (3) the patient has been transferred to another "hospital" although nobody quite knows where; or (4) the patient is found in the morgue.
Various doctors (both Shia and Sunni) have been approached to participate in the reporting scheme, as well as any number of hospital staff. A doctor reports that he was approached and shown vials of drugs used to stop the heart for open heart surgery, as well as potassium chloride, the killer of choice for the Texas Department of Corrections. Bands of Shia ministry officials scour the hospitals of Iraq (or at least where they feel safe that Sunni militia members won't just gun them down), looking for new clients. For $300 per candidate. Mass murder and the price is $300.
Why in the name of all the is holy and good are we protecting elements of a society in which this sort of slaughter becomes an item of trade? And it is not that one side is better than the other -- if we were to arm the Sunnis in a civil war, our payback would be Al Qaeda bases in Iraq. If we were to step back and let the Shia have their way, our payback would be Iran that much closer to Israel, Iran in control of the Gulf oil supplies, and Iran using Iraq as a training ground for more Hezbooloonie types to commit other atrocities elsewhere.
This situation is not going to be defused by a larger US presence there. There is FAR too much water under the bridge, both in Saddam's days and since. We have to let them kill each other (less staff for the victor of any US backed party to turn on us) until there are no blood-thirsty cretins left. Pull back and let the Saudis, and other Sunnis arm and finance the slaughter of the Shia and Iran train and finance the slaughter of the Sunnis until they are spent -- on both sides. Claim a U*N protectorate and defend the borders of Iraq, that way we can chop up as many Iranians and Syrians as we can as they head towards the front of the "civil war." For it is not really a civil war, but a proxy war with Iran and the Saudis/Egypt etc. on opposing sides.
Meanwhile our friend Putin looks more and more the culprit. Turns out his bodyguard was poisoned in 2004 by a substance that now looks startlingly similar to P210. And what a mess!!! Traces of the stuff have been found absolutely everywhere -- it looks like it is not quite as easy to use as the spy masters may have thought, or that the staff is far clumsier than they needed to be. If the late is the case, look for another few "suicides" in the near future. You know how careless those ex-KGB/FSB personnel are ... pretty depressed too.
Which brings me to something rather grisly: how long do you suppose before someone on one side of the Iraqi conflict decides that it might be a clever thing to put P210 or some such in the water supply for ... say Sadr City? Wouldn't take much, the effects would hit after substantially everyone was aware of the attack and the results would be both long term and devastating. Firstly, huge numbers of people would die nasty deaths, and you simply couldn't just change the water or let it run to clean out the pipes. Better than any form of bomb or bio-bug that prevents you from going in there ... you just can't drink the water, but in terms of population, it is just as effective as nerve gas, or a large neutron bomb. Better actually, beause you tie up so much of the resources of the target population while you are accomplishing your goals. Is it too horrible to contemplate? Clearly not, when we consider the notion of patients for sale for $300.
Sleep well.
posted by Zaphod at Sunday, December 03, 2006
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