33 dead in suicide attack on Iraq tribal leaders

BAGHDAD (AP) - A suicide bomber struck Sunni and Shiite tribal leaders and high-ranking security officials touring a market after a reconciliation meeting west of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing 33 people in the second major attack in the capital area in two days.

Despite the ongoing violence, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said he does not believe the Iraqi government will ask Americans to remain in the country past a 2011 deadline set by a security agreement between the two countries.

The bombing - which left clusters of bodies near the shabby market stalls lining a road - was part of a spike of violence that comes as the U.S. military begins to draw down its forces.

The bomber detonated an explosives belt as the tribal leaders were walking through the market in the town of Abu Ghraib, accompanied by security officials and journalists, according to the Iraqi military.

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33 dead in suicide attack on Iraq tribal leaders

Is it just me?? Does anyone else think it strange that now, after 6 years of U.S. occupation and supposed pacification, that Iraq still has these kinds of attacks with such huge numbers of casualties?

Our involvement in Iraq is akin to owning a boat. Yes, a boat. A device that produces a hole in the water, one into which the owner throws great sums of money. That is what Iraq has been for America. We have lost over 4,250 lives, the lives of U.S. troops, we have spent untold BILLIONS of U.S. taxpayer dollars and we have gained absolutely NO return from our investment.

I’d say that lack of return, in and of itself, pretty much dispels the Libbers claims of Iraq being a *WAR FOR OIL*. Iraq was not a war for oil, Iraq was a temper tantrum thrown by George W. Bush and was the catalyst for this terrible money crunch that we are suffering. Well, along with some other sweetheart and brother in law deals made BY Bush and Cheney!

The 2011 deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw was set in a security agreement that took effect on Jan. 1. There has been speculation the Iraqis may ask the U.S. for an extension.

Count on it, and I’ll tell you why. The Iraqis are the most ill-motivated people on the face of this earth. Iraqis have been ruled under a dictatorship, in one form or another, for centuries. That is all they know. They are incapable of standing on their own. That is a totally foreign notion in their mindset.

The Iraqis will accept whatever happens to them, Saddam was proof of that. Iraq was a relatively peaceful place as long as Saddam was in power, peaceful in the terms of open warfare and insurgent bombings. That was because Saddam kept a tight lid on Iraq, the Iraqi people KNEW what Saddam would do if they went against him and his regime.

Terror, and RULE by TERROR are the accepted method of government by the Muslims, of all sects. The strong man wins, corruption is the rule of the day in Iraq, democracy is not an acceptable practice and the idea of a Republic? Well, that’s as strange to the Iraqis as is democracy and acceptance of Christianity.

Iraq has basically been a waste of life and fortune, and if the USA continues to remain engaged in Iraq, Iraq will continue to bleed us dry! The only good thing I can say about this entire story is, NONE of the dead were U.S. servicemen…