More bombs in Baghdad...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1569667,00.html Quote: At least 80 people were killed in a suicide bombing in central Baghdad today when a bomber lured labourers looking for work to a minibus and triggered an explosion. Police said the death toll from the blast - which happened in the mainly Shia old town area of the Iraqi capital - was likely to rise because some of the 162 people injured would not survive. There was initial confusion over the death toll from one of the deadliest single vehicle bombings to have been carried out by militants in Iraq. Reuters reported that more than 80 people had been killed, while an Associated Press report, citing police, said at least 73 had died. The explosion, in Oruba Square, happened in the same area in which around 950 Shia worshippers were killed during a stampede on a bridge earlier this month. Twisted wreckage from devastated vehicles was left scattered around the square after the blast, and witnesses reported bodies lying in the street. ................ ... killing "at least 80" building workers looking for work - ....luring them to a little bus with hope in their hearts, thinking it was a site foreman come to pick up some laborers, if they were amongst the lucky ones they'd go home that evening dog- tired but happy, with money in their pockets to feed their families, be greeted by smiling wife and kids... then BANG! droves of poor, hopeful, hard-working Iraqi men killed and maimed by the score, leaving their heart-broken families destitute - just how low can terrorist bastards go?? Sometimes wonder whether anyone in the west really gives a damn? - attacks or natural disasters targetting westerners get enormous media coverage, endless personal stories, solidarity galore - while these repeated horrors in Iraq and the ME and the devastated lives of their Arab victims just get piled into some kind of statistical gore-hole by the western media - NEVER read one single call for donations in the western media to help the maimed, the victims' families... not even once. Ah, but I'd forgotten that's one of the "WOT" reasons the US-right pundits are saying the Iraq invasion was/is a success: it's a way of keeping AQ-or-whatever busy killing non-Americans? ... Update: Now the toll is up to 114... P.S. how come we never hear anything about the aftermath of terrorist bombings in Iraq? Name-lists of victims, anyone? Photos, life-stories...? Names of the suicide-bombers?? Accomplices? Info on investigation methods, proceedings, leads, arrests...? Zilch, far as I know, except for generic claims it's due to Al-Zarqawi's semi-AQ-or-whatever outfit (may well be true - but that's not sufficient: the London bombings were also strongly believed to be kinda-AQ-linked, but that was not the end of it: there were huge investigation efforts made, highly sophisticated forensic lab tests, many arrests made... and constant news updates!! Same after the Madrid bombings, same after Bali, same after 9/11...) The Ashura Festival bombings in Kerbala and Baghdad in March 2004 killed over 200, scores more at the following year's festival, at the time AQ not only didn't claim them but formally denied responsibility... So whodunnit? Who helped? Where's the evidence? How are the investigations getting on (remember Iraq was under CPA rule at the time)? Dunno. Dead silence. And no press outcry about inefficiency, no calls for international forensic/investigational efforts, no solidarity appeals - not even for the thousand-plus who died in the terrorism-fear Khadimiyah bridge-stamped tragedy - just as Katrina was hitting the USA, apparently with less victims. Strange? Does anyone really care about Iraqis... outside Iraq? Don't the Iraqi victims/victims' families deserve the same treatment as victims of attacks/catastrophes in the west?? Assistance, information, care??? And don't they too have the right to know ?? Don't we all? - after all, Iraq is under US/UKetc. military occupation, we're paying for this "Iraq war" in cash... while the Iraqis are paying for it in blood and tears. So how about a minute's silence all over the world for the innocent victims of bombing attacks in Iraq (preferably for victims of both ground-based and air-based attacks, but at very least the former)?? How about an appeal for donations for survivors and victims' families? How about airlifts for hi-tech western surgery for the maimed... since it seems the Iraqi hospitals are still at pre-war sanctions-level at best - but even more over-crowded, more over-stretched?? Ah ... how silly of me - I forgot Iraqis aren't westerners... they're dispensable.