U.S. Troops in Bloody Battles on Saddam Anniversary

[cal04]

U.S.-led forces mark the first anniversary of Saddam Hussein's fall on Friday fighting fierce battles with Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim rebels as Iraq plunges into the bloodiest and most chaotic period of the occupation.

On the eve of the anniversary of Baghdad's capture, 14 foreigners were reported kidnapped as new flashpoints flared across the country but seven -- all South Korean evangelical church pastors -- were later freed unharmed.


A previously unknown Iraqi group said it was holding three Japanese hostages and threatened to "burn them alive" unless Tokyo withdrew its troops from Iraq within three days.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=578&e=2&u=/nm/20040409/ts_nm/iraq_dc

[NinetySix]

1. Imagine this...

...that in a country with a population approaching 300 million, there is quite possibly a die-hard, pro-war Republican who through some accident or illness slipped into a coma shortly after the invasion began. Now imagine that that same comatose Republican has just awoken on the one-year anniversary of his slipping into the coma. What might he think?

Having skipped the intervening period of relative calm, would he perceive things differently upon seeing full-blown hostilities a full year following what he had thought would be a 'cakewalk?' What sort of self-reproachment might he suffer when told that the flowers and cheers that he once expected had never materialized, and that the dancing in the streets for which he had hoped had lately taken on a singularly ghoulish and sinister aspect?

I wonder just how many comatose Republicans are beginning to awaken.