The NY Times, in an editorial the day after a bomb ripped apart the UN headquarters in Baghdad and killed at least 20 people, included the chief UN envoy, Sergio Vieira de Mello, noted the probable involvement of al Qaida and observed, "Yesterday's bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad was the latest evidence that America has taken a country that was not a terrorist threat and turned it into one."

There are different theories about who was responsible for the car bombing, of course. The FBI (and would someone explain just what the HELL the FBI is doing in Baghdad) has confidently pronounced that the bomb was a Soviet model, and stated it belonged to Saddam. Paul Bremer, viceroy of Baghdad, claimed it was al Qaida. American puppet Ahmad Chalabi thinks the deed was done by Iraqi Ansar al-Islam, which is a loose coalition of Moslems who aren’t either Ba’athists (Saddam’s people) or al Qaida, but who disapprove of American presence in Iraq on general principles.

It’s kinda hard to tell who lobbed eggs at your car when everyone on the block wants to scrag your ass. And that’s the position we’re in with Iraq these days.

There’s an old saying: "Freedom fighters are what we call our terrorists, and terrorists are what we call their freedom fighters." The best way to describe the factions in Iraq are what you would call any irregular group that bands together to fight a foreign invader: they are a resistance movement. So let’s call them that, and leave the weighted terms to the propagandists.

The fact that the target was the UN, and specifically Sergio Vieira de Mello, a fine man who was often considered likely to be the next Secretary-General, puzzled a lot of Americans, who tacitly assumed that the UN was there to help the Iraqi people. (I found it amusing that Republicans and other right wingers especially made this distinction, separating the UN from the US forces, which were ALSO there to help the Iraqi people, but were suffering from bad PR or something.) Anyone who was paying attention already knew that a campaign against "soft targets" – anything that wasn’t US military – had already begun in recent days, with successful raids staged against the new oil pipeline that was our main reason for invading Iraq, and the main water pipeline to Baghdad. Ignoring, for the moment, the widespread disbelief of the fatuous Halliburton claims that the oil pipeline had been rebuilt so quickly for the sole purpose of rebuilding the nation of Iraq, the fact was that nobody in Baghdad benefitted from having their water supply disrupted.

So why would the resistance fighters do it?

In the case of the UN, they are in the unenviable position of being seen as American collaborators. Given the disgraceful treatment they received from the Americans during the ramp up to the invasion, the horrible irony of this is evident. The Americans vilified and smeared the UN, and the UN, who are the true heroes, went into a fantastically dangerous situation, knowing they would be endangered and insulted by the assumption they were American lackeys, and did their job.

Baghdad’s water supply was, put simply, a frame-up. It doesn’t matter how much the Americans protest their innocence, or what proof they come up with that they didn’t do it: virtually nobody in Baghdad is going to believe them. Resistance fighters know they can inflict damage on their own people and get away with it, because people will accept any plausible explanation why the evil demon invaders did this horrible thing, since it’s easier to blame evil demon invaders than it is heroes who are fighting for your freedom. If that sounds cynical, welcome to the wonderful world of propaganda in captive nations. These guys can’t afford honor, even if they had any to begin with. As Dj’on Ba’alosshi and Dhayn Akhroy’dh might say, "We’re on a mission from Allah."

The oil pipeline is the easy one, and doesn’t even require any overt lying. The resistance blew it up to stop Americans from stealing Iraq’s oil. Even Republican congressmen will be able to understand how that one might have some legs on it.

The Pentagon and the captive American media are utterly clueless, of course. Some CNN bimbo reported with a perfectly straight face that the Pentagon felt the resistance had gone too far, and Iraqis would now start massing to fight for the Americans against these terrible people.

Whenever I hear something like that, I wonder if a lobotomy isn’t a prerequisite for Officers Training School. Certainly there are a lot of enlisted personnel, especially the weekend warriors in Iraq, who have wondered similar things. As for the electronic bloviators, there seems no room for doubt in the matter.

Anyone remember General Ky and Thieu of South Vietnam? Two of the most venal, vicious, corrupt, incompetent and foolish clowns ever to float to the surface of the toilet bowl, and they were our buddies in Vietnam, the people we were fighting for.

I mention them because I’m about to mention Ahmad Chalabi. Against strong opposition among many anti-Saddam Iraqi groups here and severe consternation throughout the Arab world, we put him in charge of the Iraqi National Congress. What sort of guy is he?

He said he received specific information that the resistance would strike at a soft target back on the 14^th, four days before the attack. "The intelligence specifically said that a large-scale act would take place ... against a soft target, such as Iraqi political parties or other parties including the UN." Chalabi shared the information with his "Congress." He shared the news with US intelligence agents.

He didn’t bother to warn the UN. Nor, apparently, did American intelligence.

You don’t win many propaganda wars when you let the resistance blow up the only people in there who are really trying to improve the situation and make you look a bit better.

On a final note, here’s the latest tally of American deaths (combat and non-combat).

Total deaths since the invasion began: 270

Total deaths since USS Lincoln "Mission Accomplished" stunt: 131

Total deaths since July 2nd when that idiot grunted "Bring Them On": 66

Total deaths since July 22nd (the deaths of Odai & Qusai Hussein):38

And of course, over 1,500 American have been injured. And at least 5,000 Iraqis killed, including those killed at checkpoints and in demonstrations by scared and trigger-happy soldiers.

We’ve already lost this war. But it’s going to take a lot more deaths before our leaders admit that this is the case.