Did you know that more people were killed in Iraq in the past few weeks than in Lebanon and Israel combined?
An excellent letter in the Business Day makes the point.
SIR – An article by Andrew Sullivan in the British Sunday Times sheds some useful light on the Israel Lebanon conflict. He writes “while the world remains understandably transfixed on Lebanon and Israel more people were killed in Iraq in the past weeks than in Israel and Lebanon combined. The number tells the story. 2 669 Iraqis lost their lives in violence in May and in June the number jumped to 3 149. Almost all the deaths were deliberate targeting of civilians.” The Iraq war a threatening civil war between two Muslim sects Sunni and Shiite has a daily civilian death toll often worse than anything in Beirut or Haifa which is bad enough. |
But that's still Israel's fault, of course :/
Posted by: Gareth | August 09, 2006 at 22:15
Of course...
Posted by: Steve | August 09, 2006 at 23:21
The Shiites seem to be fighting with everyone, even their own Muslim brothers...
Posted by: Roy | August 10, 2006 at 09:09
Roy, Its actually very interesting the internal splits within Islam. They are much more significant that much of us realise. Sunni and Shites generally hate each other. The anomaly is that Syria which is Sunni is supporting Hezbollah which is Shiite. Al Qaeda which is also Sunni is also with Hezbollah. Many commentators like Thomas Freidman have been arguing that the west maybe able to pull Syria away from Iran and Hezbolah. The Sunni Shiite divide is one of the major reason why he believes this.
Posted by: mike | August 10, 2006 at 10:33
Syria is even more weird because the Al Assads are Alawites. And it was Sunni Muslims from the Muslim bortherhood who were massacred by Hafez Al Assad in 1982 (or was it 1980) in Hama. ABout 20 000 Sunni Muslims were killed.
Posted by: Steve | August 10, 2006 at 14:42
In simplicity, the phrase "The enemy of your enemy is your friend" pretty much explains most of it....
Posted by: Gareth | August 11, 2006 at 08:10