Living (and dying) Hell

Police found four dozen bodies in and around Baghdad in the past 24 hours. The death tolls in recent months are breaking the kinds of records one wishes would remain unbroken. Kidnapping victims are being press ganged into becoming suicide bombers. Meanwhile, the Administration seems to be laying the ground work for deposing the existing leadership and putting together yet another government. All of this is bad enough until you read something like this. The headline, “Braving death, Baghdad's children start school”, is the most depressing thing I have seen in a while. Until I read the final paragraph:

Back at Jawad Salim Primary School, another boy also named Ali, 12, was waiting for the afternoon shift to start.

"There's death out there, people are dying," he said matter-of-factly. "But despite all that I like to come to school."

Jesus - what a mess. This is just tragic…