A mammoth truck bomb obliterated a popular central Baghdad market on Saturday, ripping through scores of shops and flattening apartment buildings, killing at least 120 people and wounding more than *300* in the worst of a series of horrific attacks against Shiites in recent weeks.
[. . . .]
It was the deadliest single bomb blast since the United States invasion almost four years ago.
[. . . .]
Greiving relatives rushed to the hospitals. At the Imam Ali Hospital in the Sadr City neighborhood, the refrigerated portions of the morgue quickly filled and bodies were piled up next to it. People tried to donate blood, but they were told to go to a blood bank that is in a dangerous area of Baghdad.
The above is from Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Qais Mizher's "At Least 130 Die As Blast Levels Baghdad Market" in this morning's New York Times. The article also notes that death of six troops was reported on Saturday. Moving to the topic of Ehren Watada , Betsy notes Russell Shaw's "Free Lt. Ehren Watada" (The Huffington Post):
I'll tell you who deserves some court martials. The senior military officials who have either initiated specific wartime atrocities, covered up those atrocities by foisting blame on lower-rank commanders or enlistees, or set the climate for these atrocities by issuing orders with enough non-specificity that they could be taken by field personnel as an open license to commit prosecutable war crimes.
As for Lt. Watada, I would think that a general discharge should be the right action. It's not Lt. Watada's fault that the Army he signed up for has been deployed in a war based on lies and deception.
Plainly the Army views him as an organizational irritant. They do have the right to purge him, but since he is speaking from conscience rather than cowardice, only to the status of a civilian who is free to speak out.
"Free," get that? Like the "freedom" we are supposedly imposing on Iraq, and the "freedom" we supposedly still have stateside.
Ehren Watada faces a court-martial tomorrow in Fort Lewis, Washington.
Betsy: Well maybe the publisher of a certain magazine who has previously "blogged" to point out how she thought Arianna [Huffington] was wrong, should be calling with an apology and begging for tips?
New content at The Third Estate Sunday Review:
Highlights
Green Party contest ($100 prizes)
The Nation Stats
About the DNC's "2007 New Directions Survey"
Molly Ivins (1944-2007)
Amnesty International statement on Ehren Watada
Music: Diana Ross, what a long sad trip
The Cowards Silence on Ehren Watada
TV: The Nights of Bankruptcy
Editorial: Tossing "BE HONEST" right back at ya
A Note to Our Readers
Truest statement of the week
russell shaw
the new york times
richard a. oppel jr.
ehren watada
the third estate sunday review
[Jim note added on Monday: C.I. asked me to correct the number of wounded. C.I., Ava, Jess, Ty and Kat are in Tacoma for the court-martial.]
