Thought Theater

6,000 Killed In 60 Days In Iraq...Gays Targeted genre: Gaylingual & Just Jihad

The situation in Iraq continues to look bleak. The United Nations reports that some 6,000 civilians were killed in the troubled country in May and June. The report also indicates that some of the sectarian violence has begun targeting specific groups including gays. The Associated Press has the full story here.

From The Associated Press:

Hundreds of teachers, judges, religious leaders and doctors have been targeted for death, and thousands of people have fled, the report said. Evidence suggests militants also have begun to target homosexuals, it said.

According to the report, 2,669 civilians were killed in May and 3,149 were killed in June. Those numbers combined two counts: from the Ministry of Health, which records deaths reported by hospitals; and the Medico-Legal Institute in Baghdad, which tallies the unidentified bodies it receives.

The report charts a month-by-month increase in the number of civilians killed, from 710 in January to 1,129 in April. In the first six months of the year, it said 14,338 people had been killed.

Women report that their rights have been rolled back by extremist Muslim groups _ both Shiite and Sunni. While under Saddam Hussein's largely secular regime, women faced few social restrictions, they say they are now barred from going to market alone, wearing pants or driving cars.

One is left to wonder who is responsible for security within the country. Despite having 130,000 American soldiers on the ground and the Bush administration assertion that Iraq now has some 260,000 of its own soldiers, the violence seems to continue unabated. A telling fact was revealed by General Pace during a hearing when he responded to a member of Congress who pressed him for the actual number of combat ready troops. The answer was reported in a recent article by Newsweek. The full article can be found here.

From Newsweek:

A few weeks ago Gen. Peter Pace, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided the real answer. He was asked, pointedly, by a member of Congress, not how many Iraqi forces had been "trained" but how many were capable of sustained, independent operations throughout Iraq today. His answer? None. And it's been three years.