Meanwhile..From a 16 year old Iraqi blogger.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

She lives in Mosul with her family. She's a student. I have her permission to post here. I have very slightly edited it for readability. *Edited to add photos of the explosion referred to.

http://livesstrong.blogspot.com/

The new operation against Al-qaida will begin soon.

On Wednesday the situation was really bad, in the morning there were shooting all the time, at 4:30 pm I was combing my hair, and about to continue studying, something like an earth-quake happened, without thinking I knew it’s an explosion, I didn’t have time to run or hide, BOOOOOOOM, I felt like the blaster pushed me, I ran, and tried to avoid something but it hit me, I wasn’t sure what was it, smoke filled the rooms, I was glad to see everyone ok, I went to my room to see what has happened to it, the thing that hit me was my mug, and thank god we didn’t have many losses, I saw an orange smoke, we thought it was CL gas, so we put wet towels on our noses, grandpa and dad closed all the windows, and replaced the broken ones with cartoons ..
In the next day, my mom went to work, she said there were so many people in the hospital, and from time to time a family would go out crying loud because their wounded member died, it was a painful view..
On Thursday morning I couldn’t study well, there was a fight in the street behind our house, and I had to stay in the corridor, I was angry, and told grandma when she asked me to stay in a safe place “THE TERRORISTS ARE CHALLENGING ME, BUT I WILL STUDY NO MATTER WHAT” so I brought my books, sat on the floor, and studied , at noon, I got a phone call from my headmistress , she said Z was very badly injured, I couldn’t take it anymore, I lost my ability to tolerate, I was devastated, and I had a killing headache..
I went to school on Sunday and I knew I wont answer well, everyone was stressed, some of her friends knew she was injured at that morning, they were crying, even the girls who aren’t in her class were crying, my friend M came to school as soon as I said “hi, how are you” , she hugged me and burst into tears, she couldn’t study because Z is her friend & her sister’s best friend, they also had bad damages in their house because of that explosion, no one answered well at that day.
The explosion caused a huge hole ( it’s diameter is 25 meters) the explosion destroyed 50 houses, 200 shops, killed over than 40 people, injured 217 citizens, and 4 soldiers, horrified the whole city, many people lost their family members, and their houses.

[eleny]

1. Thank you, TyL

K&R

[bdamomma]

2. I hate to say this but we will pay for this.

:banghead:

[Fridays Child]

5. For this and for so much more.

:(

[Orwellian_Ghost]

3. K&R n/t

[RethugAssKicker]

4. and they say the surge is working.....sure it is

they're killing everyone !!! Murderous bastards we have here.

But, Americans don't give 2 shits !!..Only when an American soldier dies!!

[malaise]

6. And they're not showing Americans what

they're doing either.

Karma is coming.

[PurgedVoter]

7. Everyday I look for the outrage.

With all that has happened in the last eight years and I just do not see it. I live in a town of sheep.

You would think that if you asked one of them, who are we killing? Who are we spending bullets on? Who are we at war with? That they would instantly understand how insane this is. Apparently you can fool most of the people all of the time in a red city in a red state.

[Javaman]

8. What is CL gas and why were they knowledgeable as to how to prepare against it?

That jumped out at me. Was this gas used against them before?

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

9. Chlorine. Very toxic, and has been used by the insurgents.

I assume that they know how to prepare for it because of news reports and research.

Her mother is either a doctor or nurse.

[Javaman]

13. Interesting. I wonder why they so quickly prepared for it, like they

were expecting it.

has there been other attacks with it that the world doesn't know about?

[ManiacJoe]

16. Poison gas was frequently used by both sides in

the Iran-Iraq war.

[underpants]

10. Holy $%&^!

Good god what the hell? What the hell could we possibly have needed to drop on them, at this point especially, for THAT to be created?

Oh MY GOD!

[goodgd_yall]

11. These people are all suffering from PTSD

Imagine trying to carry on with your life, not being able to study or perform at school because you're all messed up in the head from near-death experiences that become part of your daily life.

[GOPBasher]

12. Or, as Bush says, "winning hearts and minds."

:puke:

[FirstLight]

14. Kick ...

Bush's ass for letting this happen!

How delusional are the warmongers to bring such horror to these poor powple. The price of democracty is insaniy? And who says we get to tell the world how a democracy works when we have a farce of one? No impeachment...no holding accoutanble for 935 lies and warcrimes?

Hoe do we go forward when so many have been traumaized by this administration?
The entire planet seems to be in need of therapy!
Our soldiers are killing themselves to avoid this mess, doesn't that tell us something?

ugh, sickened and saddened... what's left to do? pray? (yes for this girl, her family, her village, and all our troops who are endentured servants in a war they can't even define, much less win)

yes, I am ranting instead of working today :)

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

15. kick for the late shift