July 25, 2007: It's becoming
more common for kidnapping attempts to fail, as more numerous, better armed and
steadfast bodyguards fight back. This has led to gun battles in crowded cities,
as kidnappers often like to grab their victims and get away in the chaotic traffic. The gangs in the Niger Delta oil region are
becoming more numerous and bolder. There's easy money to be made, and the major
gangs no longer act with restraint. Most of these large gangs got their start
as hired muscle, and were organized by politicians to intimidate opponents and
help rig elections. But in the Delta, there were other sources of income, and
the gangs have become independent of the politicians, and now challenge their
former masters. At least some of the time. A lot of the strife is about how to
share the large amount of money still being plundered from the government.
July 19, 2007: In the north,
an anti-Shia Sunni cleric was shot to death, and the Sunni majority responded
by seeking out and attacking Shia. The violence between Sunni and Shia has been
around for centuries, and has become more violent in the last decade, as al
Qaeda encouraged more violence against Shia (who Sunni extremists consider to
be heretics.) Police eventually arrested over a hundred people in an effort to
short circuit the violence. The violence
eventually left at least half a dozen dead, and dozens wounded. Islam, despite
describing itself as the "religion of peace," it is actually the most
violently intolerant religion around these days. Violence against other
religions, and even between different sects of Islam, is common. Iraq is not an
exception, it is the rule.
