Shiites In Baghdad Slaughter At Least 44 Sunnis as Reprisals Against Militant Armies

Peace in our time.

The first signs of sectarian reprisal killings of Sunnis appeared in Iraq on Tuesday, as 44 Sunni prisoners were killed in a government-controlled police station in Baquba, north of Baghdad, and the bodies of four young men who had been shot were found dumped on a street in a Baghdad neighborhood controlled by Shiite militiamen.

A police source in Baquba said the prisoners were killed after militants who had been advancing on Baquba attacked the police station, where the men, who were suspected of having ties to the militants, were being held for questioning.

“Those people were detainees who were arrested in accordance with Article 4 terrorism offenses,” he said, referring to Iraqi antiterrorism legislation that gives security forces extraordinary arrest powers. “They were killed inside the jail by the policemen before they withdrew from the station last night.”

There is some good news, though: Obama is chipping it out of the sandtrap with much greater finesse and consistency.

Last weekend Barack Obama played his 175th and 176th rounds of golf as president. He played first at Sunnylands, the famously private course on the Rancho Mirage, California estate of the late billionaire Walter Annenberg. Obama next played at Porcupine Creek, the equally private course on the nearby estate of the very-much-alive tech billionaire Larry Ellison.

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Presidential golf can be a sensitive subject, especially if there is an international crisis at hand. Nevertheless, Obama continues to play, even as fears grow that events in Iraq, Syria, Ukraine and elsewhere have brought the world to a very dangerous point.

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Without announcing it, Bush stopped playing golf in the summer of 2003....

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," Bush said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."

In all, Bush played 24 rounds during his time in the White House. Obama has played more than seven times that many – so far.

Byron York notes that Obama explains this away by not styling himself a "war president" -- despite the fact that far more US servicemen died in Afghanistan under his command than Bush's, and despite his 2008 campaign theme that he wished to exit Iraq precisely so he could devote all available resources to the "War of Necessity" in that damned hellhole.

But Obama is a creature of comfort, well, of comfort, of laziness, and of golf, so he just says "But I'm not a War President so I can play all day."

posted by Ace at 08:19 PM

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