oh my God, what a horrific story.

the americans involved claim there was "intentional" firing from the crowd, but not a single american soldier was even wounded. they were on the roof of the building, in fact. firing down into a crowd of 200 to 300 people, they managed to kill fifteen. that's five percent of those assembled, assuming the high side of the crowd estimate.

interestingly -- that is to say, terrifyingly -- this story is currently running third on the times website, behind "court says legal immigrants can be held without bail" (almost, but not quite, equally disturbing) and "W.H.O. lifts SARS travel ban to toronto" (which is more important than the murder of fifteen civilians by american occupying forces *how*, exactly?). while i'm currently too tired to write even the flimsiest, most cursory "what-is-the-world-coming-to" tirade, i'm sure i can't be necessary for that in the face of all this. the world is coming to something ever more frightening and -- guess what -- it is the hubris of my country, or at least its administration, that's taking us there. sigh.

[also note the entry below, which was written saturday but mysteriously showed up just a few minutes ago. stupid blogger.]