Today in the Religion of Pieces

I think that's a more accurate title than the Religion of Peace, since all too often pieces are all that's left of people after Islamic terrorists do their evil work.

At least 90 people were killed in Iraq Friday by suicide bombers. From this CNN account:

The Khanaqin carnage occurred when two suicide bombers detonated near or inside two Shiite Muslim mosques, Iraqi police said.

At least 90 people were killed in the attacks, according to hospital officials. The U.S. military said more than 150 Iraqi civilians were killed or wounded in the attack, without giving a breakdown.

The Khanaqin town mayor said many children were among the dead because fathers had brought their sons to the prayer service.

The force of the explosions destroyed both mosques, according to the U.S. military and video from the scene.

Also Friday, two suicide car bombings in Baghdad killed at least six people near a hotel, police said.

First, can we dispense forever and ever with the canard that US troops "desecrate" mosques by attacking terrorists using them as fighting positions? If the Sunnis are quite willing to run into mosques, at a time when they would be packed, and blow up worshippers, they have forever abrogated the right to whine and cry about how holy and sacred mosques are.

Second, a car bomb killed at least 13 today in Baghdad.

A car bomb killed at least 13 people at a market in southeastern Baghdad on Saturday, a day after more than 80 people were killed in a series of suicide attacks in Baghdad and in a northeastern town.

The blast in the Diyala Bridge section of the capital also wounded 15 people, police said. They said the toll could increase.

Today, a car bomb dozens at a funeral.

Car bombs have killed nearly 50 people in Iraq, a day after more than 80 died in suicide blasts across the country and as US President George W Bush pledged never to relent in his "war on terrorism".

In Saturday's deadliest attack, a suicide car bomber blew up his vehicle near a crowded condolence tent during a funeral for a Shiite tribal sheikh in a small town north of Baghdad.

Five US soldiers were killed today by a roadside bomb.

The five American soldiers, assigned to the 3rd Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division, died in a pair of roadside bombings near Beiji, 155 miles north of Baghdad, the U.S. command said. Five others from the same unit were wounded.

Zarqawi, the instigator of the attacks in Jordan that killed dozens, including many in a wedding reception, had the gall on Friday to try and convince Jordanians that he hadn't intended to target a wedding reception, or other Muslims.

The Mideast's most feared terrorist sought Friday to justify a triple suicide bombing on Amman hotels that killed 59 civilians, insisting he did not deliberately target a wedding party and appealing to Muslims to believe that he was not attacking them.

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq, took an unusually defensive tone in an audiotape posted on the Internet, seeking to shore up support after widespread anger over the civilian deaths, even among sympathizers.

Still, the Jordanian-born al-Zarqawi made clear he was not about to stop the bloodshed, warning he will attack more tourist sites in Jordan and threatening to behead King Abdullah II.

Could the need to stay in Iraq and strangle the life out of every last terrorist we can find be any clearer?

And yet, it is with this violence as a backdrop that this week Congress shamefully toyed with a call to bring the troops home.

First, Senate Republicans proved why the Senate is nothing but a big fermenation vat. You dump Senators in, hermetically seal them off from reality, and inevitably they rot and sour. Most voted for an amendment that called for a general sense of a timetable for withdrawal. You can't be a little bit pregnant, and you can't be a little bit for withdrawing the troops. Either we send a message to our enemies that we committed to grinding them into paste, or we give them reason to believe they just have to wait us out.

Over in the House, Democratic Congressman Murtha proposed a withdrawal as soon as possible. House Republicans called for a vote on the proposal. Predictably, Democrats hopped up and down like a two year old who answered "No" when asked if he wanted a piece of candy, and then threw a tantrum when Mommy said ok, and put the goodies back in the cupboard.

The Star Tribune exhibited the usual fuzzy-headed thinking in an editorial this morning.

First, Murtha did not endorse an extreme liberal position. It's a heartfelt argument without ideological content. Nor did he suggest a retreat.

Calling to bring the troops as soon as possible is not a retreat? What, then, is a retreat? Bringing the troops home while the murderous ideology that seeks to kill us all still finds a home in Iraq is the very definition of retreat.

As I was reading the paper this morning, John, my five year old, asked "Is there bad news?"

Oh, John, you don't know the half of it.

UPDATE: This from today.

Indonesia: Christian woman killed with machetes

Unidentified attackers armed with machetes killed a woman and wounded another in central Sulawesi province, where tensions are high following a series of attacks blamed on Islamic militants, police said Saturday.

Police said it was too soon to say whether the attack was linked to the simmering sectarian conflict in the Indonesian province, where open battles between Muslims and Christians killed about 1,000 people in 2001 and 2002.

Michelle Malkin has more.

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Hugh Hewitt refers to the House Democrats as The "Sound and Fury, Signifying Nothing" Democrats.