Scores killed on Baghdad's bloody Wednesday

It was, we were told, essential to rid Iraq of the menace of Saddam Hussein and his murderous regime. Without the ‘Butcher of Baghdad’, Iraq would quickly become a joyous benefactor of western democracy.
Of course the lies and diversions which were employed to ensure this ‘essential’ war was prosecuted were transparent, to those who wanted to see. In the self serving process, the sponsors of this war, the oil and arms industries, have done far more than simply shoot themselves in the collective feet.
Iraq is in turmoil with waves of violence which at least match, if not exceed the activities of Saddam’s deck of cards. Bloody Wednesday (march 8 2006) might represent the high end of violence to date, but it also represents a point on a rising trend of outrage and violence.
What happened? For starters the bodies of 18 men were found in an abandoned minibus and 50 others were abducted in a daylight raid on a city security agency. Almost 50 others died in violence across the country in the same 24-hour period.
It has been reported that the 50 security guards went peacefully with interior ministry troops because they thought it was some kind of official operation. That means our great coalition of the willing has managed merely to supplant one bunch of butchers with another, albeit the one with official blessing.

And in a sinister attempt to cleanse public records of the handiwork of what senior US officials now openly refer to as "death squads", staff at Baghdad's central morgue say they have been ordered to catalogue violent death only by bombings or insurgency clashes — not as execution-style shootings. A UN human rights official appeared to confirm this after the morgue director fled Iraq.

Gunmen who raided a security firm controlled by a relative of Sunni Vice-President Sheik Ghazi al-Yawar were dressed in police uniforms, but there were contradictory official responses to the attack in which the 50 guards disappeared.
Three senior Interior Ministry officials told reporters no such raid had been authorised. But two others claimed it was an officially sanctioned operation by police commandos acting on a client's complaint.

No doubt Dick Cheney already feels like he is being punished as polls show him bouncing his bum along the bottom of the public opinion charts. He and his corporate buddies should suffer far worse fates than simply public ignominy. They should all be made to exist in the hell hole they have created in Iraq.
Quotes from the Melbourne Age story: Scores killed on Baghdad's bloody Wednesday