war, fear, and bloodshed around the world

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/10/27/world/meast/iraq-violence/index.html?iref=obinsite

This past weekend Muslims in Baghdad were celebrating the religious holiday of Eid al-Adha. This religious holiday lasts for four days and commemorates God’s testing of Abraham’s faith. In a dream God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, but before he could murder his son, God miraculously saved Isaac and provided him with a sacrificial sheep. This religious holiday also coincides with the Hajj, when thousands of Muslims go on a pilgrimage to Mecca. In Iraq, however, Eid celebrations have been disrupted by numerous car bombs which have killed roughly thirty people and wounded many. In Baghdad and other surrounded cities, numerous car bombs detonated in market places, near restaurants, and Shiite neighborhoods. Shootings and explosions of shops and homes have also occurred. Most of the victims were Iranian pilgrims and members of the Shabak sect-a minority of Shia Islam. Due to the type of attacks (explosives) and the targeted people (Shiites), the Iraqi government has blamed Sunni militants with alleged links to Al-Qaeda for the attacks.

If these attacks are being executed by Al-Qaeda, this story proves the ferocity of the group. The fact that Al-Qaeda would allow attacks during a religious holiday displays their intolerance of other sects of Islam and, arguably, their disregard for the solemnity of religious holidays. Although this is not the first time that such attacks have occurred, if Al-Qaeda is the perpetrator of these acts the group is obviously maintaining and increasing its ferocity and will continue to be a viable threat to the West and populations of the Middle East.

-AE

As the Presidential campaigns are coming closer and closer to election day either side will look for any ammunition against the opposition.  Recently the attacks on the embassy in Benghazi have been ample fodder for the Romney campaign.  The initial reports and news reporting made it seem as though the current administration held back security and military forces which could have saved lives.  The Romney camp also called for greater transparency in the reporting of the events.

A new timeline of events has come out which makes the current Obama administration look as though they did as much as possible in the embassy attack.  The new timeline reports the CIA’s role in the events, which were not noted in previous reports.  The report states that there were no orders for forces to “stand down” and there was no “second guessing” when ordering security forces. The updated report talks about a CIA security team that took action to secure the compound, a surveillance drone that was redirected from other operations, and a security team from Tripoli that was en route to assist.

From my personal experience I have not seen any advertisements countering the Romney attacks on the President.

-Sam

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/11/new-detailed-account-of-benghazi-attack-notes-cias-quick-response/