Whatever anyone may think of the war in Iraq, there can be no possible justification for terrorists’ mass slaughter of innocents there.
Scores of young Iraqis were lined up outside a military recruitment center in Baghdad recently when a suicide murderer who had pretended to be just another potential recruit detonated explosives loaded with nails, killing at least 60 people and injuring 125 more.
The wanton savagery and cruelty of such an attack undermines any claim that such a thing is a legitimate tactic in war. The young men at the recruitment center had not even joined the military when the suicide bomber cut them down in a matter of seconds, causing tremendous tragedy for their families and friends.
The same has happened at other military and police recruitment centers in Iraq, with similar horrible effects.
President Barack Obama says the United States is “officially” ending its major combat operations in Iraq this month. That does not mean, however, that violent fanatics in Iraq are going to stop trying to seize political control of that nation through violence.