Hacker or Hackee? Choose Up

From the Department of What the Hell Have We Gotten Ourselves Into: A Shia cleric is hacked to death by a mob after pulling a gun on them at the Mosque of Ali in Najaf.

Also, I'm trying to find a link for snippet mentioned on the tube by a Boston Globe embed on vicious house-to-house fighting by the Marines in Baghdad today.

Comments

[Gary Gunnels]

So one of these guys was a hated thug of the "ancien regime," and other guy just happened to be with him? The FoxSpews article isn't very clear about the motives here.

[Grant Gould]

This looks like a garden-variety cock-up, hardly unique to Iraq but a fairly standard set-piece in any civil disorder from postbellum Georgia to Kandahar to Najaf.

An event occurs with mixed messages (eg, cleric appears with government thug). A crowd assembles, as much out of curiosity as anger. Someone does something provocative or provocative seeming, someone else responds badly, people panic, and ten seconds later there's blood on the floor.

There will be a whole lot more of these before this war is over. There has been too much confusion and dislocation, and too many people in a position to lose or to gain by it.

And though we'll probably never know precisely what happened or why, we at least have the consolation that those involved will never know precisely either. As for its deeper significance? There is probably no deeper significance.

[Gary Gunnels]

Grant Gould,

Apparently rampant murder and mayhem has been common in the last few days in Basra. If the reports from the local population is to be believed at least.

[Anonymous]

Why should Saddam have a monopoly on beating someone to death?

[Lefty]

We've got the makings of a serious problem here. Incidents like this plus all the looting and grudge-settling (not to mention bank robbery) is going to bring on martial law in the next few days. The same street people who brought down Saddam's statue are the ones now tearing up the place. When they start getting shot for such mischief they could start wondering if there's any difference between Saddam and Uncle Sam.

[Underground Conspiracy Watch]

Its the fear based marketing of the scimitar manufacturers that caused that incident. Arabian Knife Corporation, this means YOU!

[Shannon Love]

Hacked to death! Jeebus! What operating system was he using?

[geophile]

Guess I sold my AKC stock just in time.