Careful with that protest, Eugene

A rather odd story popped up in the international section of the Times this morning. It seems that the Interior Minister of Iraq recently cautioned the citizens of his country against holding demonstrations and protests. On the surface, this seems like a fairly sound suggestion, as strange as that may sound, because large numbers of people may be targets for insurgents with car bombs, etc. However, in the case of this guy's office, it isn't exactly "insurgents" who are causing the problems.

Iraq's interior minister warned citizens Monday not to hold protests, saying the gatherings were an invitation for a large-scale terrorist attack. His comments came a day after government bodyguards opened fire on a group of employees demanding higher wages, killing one person.

Haithem Jassim, one of three people injured in the melee, said the demonstrators were unarmed.

I sense that some of you are missing the point here, so I'll repeat a key section of that again. "... a day after government bodyguards opened fire on a group of employees demanding higher wages, killing one person." These weren't terrorists, insurgents, or whatever each wing are calling them these days. These were the paid security officers of the Ministry of the Interior. As a side note, this guy is part of the "interim government" which will shortly be on its way out the door, not the newly elected assembly.

So, to put this in a nutshell, Iraqis head out into the streets to take their newly granted freedom of speech and peaceful assembly for a spin. They jump up on their shiny new soapboxes and inform one of their government officials that they are working for slave wages and would like more money. The response? They get gunned down in the street and told to stop protesting. And this is the government that we set up. I can hardly wait to see what the Mullah backed, Iranian supported regime will do.

But dont' let that bother you, kids. Remember.... FREEDOM IS ON THE MARCH!