“Grief among Western officials here was intense today and unease widespread. The suicide bombing at the United Nations headquarters… resonated far beyond the palm-lined Baghdad highway where it sits.
For Iraqis, it suggested that their country might already be trapped in a cycle of bloodshed more widespread and cruel than they thought possible after the American invasion.
Many feel helpless. They are not sure whom to blame, pointing the finger alternately at Islamic militant groups and Iraq’s own neighbors, all of whom they believe might have an interest in wrecking efforts to rebuild the country under American guidance.
But they also condemned the Americans, seeing the attack as another sign of the poor job the occupation forces are doing providing security in a country they now nominally control.” NY Times
Diplomat ‘Will Be Acutely Missed’, Says UN’s Annan; he has been considered a possible successor to Annan as Secretary General.
Sergio Vieira de Mello, the senior U.N. diplomat who was killed in today’s truck bombing in Baghdad, was one of the world’s most experienced nation-builders, a major star at the United Nations who ran Kosovo after U.S. air power drove Serbs from the ethnic Albanian enclave in 1999, and delivered East Timor to independence last year.
The Brazilian diplomat, 55, who began his U.N. career as an obscure refugee official, was tapped by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in late May to help Iraq’s transition to self rule. He was due to step down Aug. 27 and return to his regular job in Geneva as U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Washington Post
But, with all due respect for his stature, let us remember that he was only one of twenty UN relief workers to die in this tragedy, for which the Bush junta’s arrogance and ineptitude should be held responsible. And that is not to suggest that these deaths are more meaningful than the countless Iraqi civilian casualties of the US invasion, whose numbers US authorities have not even found it important to tally.
News analysis —Chaos as an Anti-American Strategy:
The bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad today provided grisly evidence of a new strategy by anti-American forces to depict the United States as unable to guarantee public order, as well as to frighten away relief organizations rebuilding Iraq.
Military officers and experts on terrorism said the bombing fit a pattern of recent strikes on water and oil pipelines and the Jordanian Embassy, although they emphasized that it was too early to uncover any connections among the attacks.
In recent weeks terrorists have conducted almost daily attacks on the American military. But after the bombing today there is a growing belief that anti-American fighters, whatever their origin and inspiration, have adopted a coherent strategy not only to kill members of allied forces when possible, but also to spread fear by destroying public offices and utilities.
President Bush was defiant today. He said: “Every sign of progress in Iraq adds to the desperation of the terrorists and the remnants of Saddam’s brutal regime. The civilized world will not be intimidated, and these killers will not determine the future of Iraq.” NY Times
There is no such thing as creating the impression of spreading chaos. The 800-lb. gorilla in the room is that the US cannot guarantee public order and is precipitating actual chaos, of course. But the finger will be pointed everywhere but at our own execrable actions.
