Teeth and claws

Sounds like they're starting to get "desperate" in Rihad:

Three explosions rocked a residential compound in the Saudi
capital Saturday night, killing dozens of people in what the government
described as a "terrorist" attack.
The midnight blast came after gunmen broke into the upscale compound of
about 200 villas and exchanged fire with security guards, a Saudi
government official said.
There were conflicting reports of the number of dead and wounded. An
official at a Riyadh hospital, speaking on condition of anonymity, said
dozens of people were killed. The official said dozens more were
wounded, and that Saudis, Germans, French and Italians lived in the 200
villas in the compound.
Flames could be seen still burning at the compound several hours after
the explosion. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Amanda Batt in
Washington said no Americans were hurt.
Diplomats reported one big explosion about midnight, followed by two
smaller ones 15 seconds apart. The streets were crowded with late night
crowds because of Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims fast during the
day.
A woman living in the compound told The Associated Press in a telephone
interview that "there is lot of blood" at the scene of the explosions.
"I am extremely terrified; I am really scared. I felt it was an
earthquake," the woman said without identifying herself.
"Lots of houses are damaged, windows shattered and police echoing with
sirens of ambulances," she said. "The ambulances were picking up lots
of people. It looks like there are lots of people who died."
The Saudi government official said the explosions took place in the
Muhaya compound. He said the attackers exchanged fire with the guards
and he said there were apparently three explosions.
"We heard a very strong explosion and we saw the fire," Bassem
al-Hourani, who said he was a resident at the targeted compound, told
Al-Arabiya in a telephone interview.
"I heard screams of the children and women. I don't know what happened
to my friends if anybody was injured," he said. "All the glass in my
house were shattered."

The saddest part:

A Saudi government official said most of the wounded were
believed to be children because their parents were out shopping during
Ramadan. Hanadi al-Ghandaki, manager of the targeted compound, told
al-Arabiya that about 100 people were wounded, mostly children "because
most adults were outside the compound at that time." She did not
elaborate.

If I were a cynic I'd predict that the Karl Rove machine will attempt
to spin this by explaining it to be proof that democracy is beginning
to spread throughout the Middle East. Luckily I'm not a cynic. What I
am is a person with friends and family - just like you most likely. And
I'm willing to bet that if there's one thing we can agree on it's that
when residential compounds full of kids become targets we're all in
trouble. If that's not terrorism, then I don't know what is.
Assuming we're agreed, please consider the following:

An Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed Friday apparently
shot down by insurgents--killing all six U.S. soldiers aboard and
capping the bloodiest seven days in Iraq for Americans since the fall
of Baghdad. In retaliation, American troops backed by Bradley fighting
vehicles swept through Iraqi neighborhoods before dawn Saturday,
blasting houses suspected of being insurgent hideouts with machine guns
and heavy weapons fire. "This is to remind the town that we have teeth and claws and we will use them,'' said Lt. Col. Steven Russell, commander of the 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment.

This is insane. Blasting houses suspected
of being insurgent hideouts?? Could we maybe try to at least make sure
first before we break out the "machine guns and heavy weapons fire"?
Attacking neighborhoods in a blind rage cannot be our policy. It is a
terrorist's tactic. It's wrong when Al Qaeda does it and it's wrong
when we do it. It needs to stop immediately. Please do the world a
favor and tell your senator.
If you're lazy like me feel free to just cut and paste this entry into
an email and fire it off. Remember - they base their votes on volume of contact, so every single email counts.

I'd write myself, except I live in DC and we don't have representation in Congress. But that's a whole other rant.

Posted by flow Frazao on November 8, 2003 at 11:01 PM | Permalink