Since 2008 began the U.S. has dropped some 90,000 pounds of bombs on six provinces in central Iraq, or an average of 9,000 pounds a day, according to today's L.A. Times. This is already at twice the rate of December. So the 'surge' is working, we hear it from all sides. Violence is down, especially since we don't count B-1 and F-16 strikes as 'violence.'
The nearly 50,000 pounds dropped on Diyala province on Thursday are of particular note. I submit that there is a back story here that can only be obtained by reading between the lines.
You see on Wednesday 6 American occupation soldiers were blown up after they invaded a booby-trapped house. So I have no doubt that the air strikes by strategic bombers on the same area the next day, strikes that almost certainly involved the wanton slaughter of civilians, was the usual revenge/terror response that I spoke of when Blackwater mercenaries murdered seventeen civilians in response to one resistance fighters sniper fire. Again, the chances of finding the people who actually booby-trapped the house are slim and none. So what's an occupation army to do? Make them pay! Show them what real terror is! Call in the B-1s.
Sunday, we will put out flag draped coffins for the six U.S. soldiers that found what they were looking for. And of those murdered in revenge? We don't even know how many, let alone their names.
