If it happens in the west, it’s a catastrophe. In Iraq, it’s just another day.
I don't mean to belittle the horrible bombings in London, but consider that these things happen almost every day in Iraq. The B*sh junta may be telling people to clap harder because it will bring Freedom™ and Democracy™ to Iraq, but that country is in full meltdown now, and the United States doesn't have the manpower, the will, or the technical competence to handle it.
Thus, every day people get blown up, either by fundamentalists who think they're in the express lane to paradise, or by the hamfisted attempts at retaliation by the United States military. The (increasingly strained) argument that I hear from well-meaning people on the left is "we broke it, we bought it" and that we are the only people that can keep the country from falling into civil war.
Well, the country has already fallen into civil war. You can't see the armies, but they are there; the various Iraqi militias that don't have the US seal of approval have been operating under the shadow of US surveillance for over a year, and know that massing just invites bombing raids that have a remote chance of actually hitting some non-innocent non-bystander. The US keeps not seeing the armies and claiming no civil war, but every day, a dozen or so people get killed or maimed by suicide bomber, roadside bomb, or the ever popular assassination team.
What does losing taste like?
Does it taste like this?
(link via Yowling from the Fencepost)