While Bush plays cowboy and Democrats vacation...

Iraq rush hour. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Good, I still have my two hands and they still working properly, and what else?, oh, i still have my two legs working, I still have my head stuck to my neck, my two eyes working,my mouth and nose, no blood on my white T-shirt but why do I have this terrible pain in my ears? oh now I know why. the reason of this pain in my ears is the explosion. it just happened two or three seconds ago. It is 8,10 am when I was in the mini bus coming to work. A loud sound. OMG, its an explosion

man in the mini bus:-"its a car bomb OMG. "

myself:-"no its not a car bomb. Its either a mortar shell or an IED"

the man again:-"its a car bomb, i saw a big piece of iron "

myself:-"ok its a car bomb but where is the black cloud? where is the big fire?

the man:-" oh right, I think its an IED."

...Less than five minutes after the explosion, everything was normal and we started talking and laughing again and why not, its just an IED in Baghdad....

Laith,
Inside Iraq,
August 4, 2007

In a lawless environment where men with guns rule the streets, engaging in the banalities of life has become a death-defying act. Four years into our occupation, we have failed on every promise, while we have substituted Baath Party tyranny with a tyranny of Islamist, militia and criminal violence. When the primary preoccupation of average Iraqis is when and how they are likely to be killed, we can hardly feel smug as we hand out care packages. As an Iraqi man told us a few days ago with deep resignation, “We need security, not free food.”

Buddhika Jayamaha, Wesley D. Smith, Jeremy Roebuck, Omar Mora, Edward Sandmeier,
Yance T. Gray and Jeremy A. Murphy,
members of the U.S. Army in Iraq
New York Times,
August 19, 2007