The PenOpticon

Michelle Malkin is clearly impressed with the ability to drop a 500 LB bomb on 6 people in a house. Over at MichelleMalkin.Com she writes:

Yeah, baby.
F-16s + Beastie Boys = Crazy Delicious.
You can share/embed Allah’s Sabotage video at YouTube!

Yes, someone has actually put this bombing to music. I’m still wondering about the unidentified woman and child who were killed along with al-Zarqawi and al-Rahman. I still think the world is a slightly better place without al-Zarqawi in it, but I’m not ready to dance in the street because of a little American-style death from above. Even W looked pretty grim in announcing the success of yesterday’s mission. Perhaps he was briefed more fully on the actual collateral damage caused by this surgical strike.

Update… CNN has posted a transcript of Caldwell’s press briefing from Friday June 9:

QUESTION: The report yesterday that a child was killed in that, are you saying that that’s not the case right now?

CALDWELL: I’m saying I’m not certain at the moment. Because the initial report that I was provided in fact said there was a child, and then when I went through the after-action review today — again, as with any military operation, you get the first reports in. They’re fairly accurate, but they’re never complete. And then you give follow-on work to establish exactly what the factual facts are.

And the report today says it was six people, three males and three females; no children.

Obviously, it would have been better to capture this guy alive than to kill 6 people. Let’s hope Caldwell’s “report” is telling the truth.

Update…  Maybe Caldwell’s “report” should be reprimanded.  The Times of London reports that:

“Al-Zarqawi’s second wife Israa, in her late teens, and their 18-month-old baby, Abdul Rahman, died in the strike, Jordanian officials told The Times.Israa was the daughter of Yassin Jarrad, a Palestinian Islamic militant, who is blamed for the killing in 2004 of Ayatollah Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim, the Iraqi Shia leader.”

Looks like General Caldwell was wrong — a child was killed in the strike along with his mother. But Michelle was eerily pophetic when she began her post with “Yeah, baby”.  As I said before — the world is a better place without al-Zarqawi, but gloating over his death while covering up/ignoring the death of a young woman and infant is unseemly.  Since all of this was accomplished with Jordanian intellegence and cell phone monitoring, it seems likely that that U.S. forces knew exactly who would be in the house along with Al-Zarqawi.

So long Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, it’s been unreal. And if everything, we’ve been told is true — or even half — good riddance. But when those American F-16’s screamed over Zarqawi’s “safe house” and dropped their bombs, they also killed, according to CNN, “a woman and a child”. Inquiring minds would like to know who these people were. And did American intelligence sources know they would be there? And if they did, who signed the final order to allow the deliberate murder of a child? Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell told CNN he “knew” they could strike that target “without causing collateral damage to other Iraqi civilians and personnel”. How young – or old — does one have to be classified as collateral damage?

Update… CNN has posted a transcript of Caldwell’s press briefing from Friday June 9:

QUESTION: The report yesterday that a child was killed in that, are you saying that that’s not the case right now?

CALDWELL: I’m saying I’m not certain at the moment. Because the initial report that I was provided in fact said there was a child, and then when I went through the after-action review today — again, as with any military operation, you get the first reports in. They’re fairly accurate, but they’re never complete. And then you give follow-on work to establish exactly what the factual facts are.

And the report today says it was six people, three males and three females; no children.

Obviously, it would have been better to capture this guy alive, than to kill 6 people. Let’s hope Caldwell’s “report” is telling the truth.

We’ve had too many bicycle deaths this year in the GTA. On Tuesday evening, Sgt Gregory Stobbart, a 45-year-old police officer was killed while cycling north along Tremaine Rd in Milton. He was struck by the side-mirror of a dump truck, knocked into a ditch and later pronounced dead at Hamilton General Hospital. Our hearts go out to the Stobbart family.

We talk about “smart commuting” and even set up pretty websites for the purpose, but cycling is essentially an afterthought — or a photo op — when politicians look at ways to ease urban congestion and smog. Society-at-large has almost zero interest in sharing roads with bicycles. Two years ago the city of Toronto trumpeted plans for a dramatic expansion of cycling routes in the city. Last year the city actually added just one kilometer to the system. My own route takes me south on what was a two-lane+bike lane, tree-lined section of Dufferin Street. To make way for gigantic housing developments, they have widened the road to five car lanes (turn lane in the center) and removed the dedicated bike lane that had been in place for the past dozen years or so. Progress, eh?

The Star’s reportage of the latest cycling death is tinged with grim irony: “The 30-year-old Grimsby man who was driving the truck was not injured.”

Really?