welcome to qaim, here's your koran

September 6, 2005 12:32 AM

In other news, let's all welcome the newest nation on our little planet, the Islamic Republic of Qaim. Newly created by the Iraqi faction of Al-Qaeda on the Iraqi side of the Iraqi-Syrian border, they're executing "collaborators" and at least one "prostitute". Their nearest neighbor's security forces -- the US Marines -- say they haven't heard anything about it.
posted by raaka (13 comments total)

Hey yeah! With all the horror and devistation over in this hemisphere, I almost forgot. Did they ever agree on a constitution? I hear there's a vote in Oct. so I assume yes. Is it everything to everybody? Is Islamic law the rule of the land?
posted by Balisong at 12:36 AM on September 6, 2005

It may be interesting to see if any bad news about Iraq is being pushed out at the moment while noone is noticing... It's not like it hasn't happened before...
posted by Meccabilly at 2:50 AM on September 6, 2005

Sometimes it seems to me that the biggest thing the Bush administration has going for it is that it's hard for people to focus on more than one utter disaster at a time. Yay, us.
posted by Justinian at 3:44 AM on September 6, 2005

Oh, yeah. We have that place under tight control.
posted by caddis at 4:09 AM on September 6, 2005

Iraqi constitution.

Love the preamble, especially the ending. Between that and people rejecting Qaim with their feet, there seems to be some good news coming out of Iraq.
posted by IndigoJones at 4:35 AM on September 6, 2005

Who do I call for a visa if I want to go a-visiting? It should be a popular spot, the number of people I know who have gone/are eager to go to Cuba is truly disappointing.
posted by OmieWise at 6:20 AM on September 6, 2005

Between that and people rejecting Qaim with their feet, there seems to be some good news coming out of Iraq.

I'm really hoping that this is sarcasm, Indigo. You could not possibly think that reports that people are running for their lives from armed thugs who are executing citizens in the street is good news?
posted by octothorpe at 7:15 AM on September 6, 2005

Good news. When they are all rounded up in a nice tight corner, they'll be easier to wipe out without massive civilian death.
posted by Kickstart70 at 10:14 AM on September 6, 2005

Surely it isn't much better for the US to allow these thugs to wipe out civilians than it is for the US to do the wiping out itself?
posted by Ptrin at 10:34 AM on September 6, 2005

Juan Cole's response to Hitchens.
posted by homunculus at 10:46 AM on September 6, 2005

homunculus-That's an awesome article. Thanks for linking it.
posted by OmieWise at 12:34 PM on September 6, 2005

I'm really hoping that this is sarcasm, Indigo. You could not possibly think that reports that people are running for their lives from armed thugs who are executing citizens in the street is good news?

The executions are infuriating. My point was to a different part of the story. The armed thugs apparently believe themselves to be legitimate politicos and entitled to execute citizens on the street. The good news is that no one else in town seems to think so. As the tribal elder said, "We want the city to go back to its normal situation." That is to say, the insurgents (how I loathe that word!) and their cockeyed views, are not welcome.

It's a small good, granted, but it is a good. I like good.

Sorry if that was no clear. For the record, I'm never sarcastic, it's a childish form of expression. Also for the record, I really do like the preamble to the new constitution. I like the pride in the country's astonishing history and the use of the phrase "we the people".

Indeed, it was Balisong's original question concerning the constitution that got me into this in the first place.
posted by IndigoJones at 2:42 PM on September 6, 2005

Speaking of executions, apparently Saddam Hussein has confessed that he gave orders to execute thousands of Kurds in the late 1980s, so we can just skip the potentially-embarassing trial and go straight to the first-class hanging.
posted by kirkaracha at 11:18 PM on September 6, 2005