Current Events Watch

From time to time we all get cravings. Chocolate, ice cream, potato chips, nachos, or fill in the blank with whatever it is you’re just dying to have right now! I’m mostly a salty snack kind of guy, and will usually pass on the chocolate and the ice cream. Although, I do enjoy a bowl of vanilla with Hershey’s syrup from time to time, now that I mention it. Yum. Usually, though, I’ll go for the bag of chips or the cheesy nachos. Extra jalapenos, please, although I might regret that later.

Of pickles, I’m not a big fan. Hold the pickles for me. So it never occurred to me that there might be enough pickle fanatics out there craving a soggy cuke to warrant a demand for pickle stores. I was wrong. The Pickle Guys in NYC seem to have done quite well, and I guess there are others. I Googled it. Who knew? Talk about a niche market.

Apparently Iraqis also love their pickles. They have pickle shops there, too. One less today, though, after the latest car bomb attack in Baghdad. Quote from a witness reported by the Associated Press:

“We rushed outside the house after hearing the sound of the explosion. I could see the bakery and a nearby pickle shop on fire,” said Abu Ahmed, a 36-year-old Shiite government employee. “The wounded were screaming for help as the ambulances were arriving.”

Eleven people were killed, including two kids. The main target was the nearby bakery, as customers were lining up for bread as they ended their Ramadan fast. Unfortunate location selection for the pickle shop guys, though, and unfortunate timing for those customers who may have simply planned to dash in to satisfy an urgent pickle craving.

Of course it was “the bad guys” who did the killing, I understand that. But as far as I’m concerned, George Dubya and the Bushies have the blood on their hands. I know these things are happening every day, it becomes old news, but why? Because of the US illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq, we have resolved nothing, accomplished nothing, other than creating an environment in which sectarian violence between the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds can flourish. It’s called a civil war (oxymoron, that phrase), and we created it. Now we’re stuck.

What strikes me most is that whether it’s us killing them, them killing us, or them killing each other, the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of deaths that are the result of this atrocity that is the war in Iraq have come in increments of, say, for example, eleven. Given enough time, like four and a half years, I guess those numbers do add up. And no end in sight. Keep that calculator handy.

Like I said, I don’t like pickles, but I do recognize one when I see it, and we’re certainly in one now when it comes to Iraq. I think I’ll stick with the nachos.

iraq war, illegal war, baghdad, car bomb, war casualties, george bush