This Is What Civil War Looks Like

From the Associated Press:

Gunmen in camouflage uniforms stormed the offices of a private Iraqi security company and kidnapped as many as 50 employees, police said Wednesday, as U.S. and Iraqi patrols discovered 24 bodies in various parts of the capital.

(snip)

An American military patrol found 18 of the bodies — all males — in an abandoned minibus Tuesday night on a road between two notorious mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighborhoods.

The bodies were brought to Yarmouk Hospital and lined up on stretchers for identification. Most had bruising indicating they were strangled and two were shot, said Dr. Muhanad Jawad, who initially thought they had been hanged. Police believed at least two of the men were foreign Arabs.

Police found the bodies of six more men — four of them strangled and two shot — discarded in other parts of the city.

(snip)

One bomb hidden under a parked car detonated as police from the interior minister's protection force were driving through central Baghdad, killing two officers and injuring another, police said. Four bystanders were injured in the blast. The minister was not in the convoy at the time.

Another roadside bomb hit a police patrol in north Baghdad, killing two officers and injuring four others, police said.

A third one missed an American convoy on the northern outskirts of Baghdad and killed two Iraqi boys who were selling gasoline by the roadside, police said. He estimated their age at 10 or 11.

A car bomb targeting another U.S. convoy in north Baghdad injured five civilian bystanders, police said. There was no immediate word of American casualties.

An Iraqi patrol saw four gunmen pull a man from the trunk of a car and shoot him to death in west Baghdad, police reported. They said the patrol tried to intercede, but the gunmen fired at them and fled.

More gunmen pulled over a school bus carrying about 25 high school girls and shot the driver in front of his terrified passengers. The wounded driver was rushed to hospital, police said.

Tell me again....why did we invade Iraq?

Oh right, I remember! WMDs and mushroom clouds. No, that's not it. Umm, to get rid of Saddam? No, I forgot we aren't using that one anymore. Was it to bring democracy? Um, no...that didn't work quite so well. To bring peace and stability to Iraq and the Middle East? Fine job we're doing so far...

Hmmm...guess I ought to call Unka Karl and Gen. Pace to get the latest "It's not a civil war." talking points.