Bombing: Iraqis Angered by US Failure to Provide Security
Some reports have the dead in Sunday’s bombing outside the Baghdad hotel at 8, with 40 wounded. About 10 of those are security guards, and 6 police, according to al-Zaman. Ten of the wounded are in serious condition, many having lost limbs.
The bomber was stopped outside the hotel. If he had been able to strike the building, it would have been a disaster. Five of the members of the Interim Governing Council and some Cabinet members live at the Baghdad Hotel, along with a number of US contractors. The IGC members were probably the target. IGC member Aqila al-Hashimi was assassinated in September, and the leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which has a seat on the IGC, was assassinated August 29. Only IGC member Muwaffaq al-Rubaie was slightly wounded in the attack.
AP reported, “Although they may not know who Sunday’s bombers were, some Iraqis clearly believed the United States bore part of the blame. They shouted as much into the faces of U.S. soldiers who roared up in their Humvees to the chaotic scene near the Baghdad Hotel. “Hey! Hey! Al-Hukuma fashalet!” You’ve failed us, two dozen Iraqis chanted in Arabic, along sidewalks strewn with broken glass, twisted hunks of automotive metal, bloody bits of human flesh.“.
US politicians eager to put a happy face on the Iraq situation forget that having bombs go off in your city makes people feel nervous and insecure. If God forbid a similar bomb had gone off outside a hotel in Washington, DC, with those kinds of casualties, it would be a national emergency in the US.
Several Iraqi translators for the US army and other workers have quit recently for fear of their lives.