Nearly Two Hundred Die in Northern Iraq Blast

Another series of deadly suicide attacks caused death and turmoil in Northern Iraq. The usual word sent out on TV was that it was just Al Qaeda in Iraq ratcheting up the pressure as General Petraeus prepares his September report to Congress. The approved line is that casualties will increase as September beckons as Al Qaeda wants to prove that the "surge" is not working and will get a weak pacifistic Democratic Congress to call for more troop removals from the war zone. Unfortunately, just like with everything else in this war, leading network correspondents and analysts refuse to dig deeper to find out the truth. The attacks were on a religious group, the Yazidis, that are not Islamic and not Christian. There have been conflicts with the Yazidis and retaliations over a Yazidi woman who was living with a Sunni. Thus, the incident has some history to it and the attack could have come from many different quarters and once again highlighting how complex and dangerous a place Iraq is. But the administration and many of its spokespeople are quite adept at putting out misinformation or simple answers that seem to satisfy many. Therefore no matter how many die in the next few weeks, the surge has been insulated from criticism and will continue well into next year.