Pawns in a Chess Game...

"Last night was pretty heavy...Heard about 6 or 7 explosions outside the GZ...They were quite loud ones...As I was reading emails and surfing the net, I heard a weird noise, like some kind of metal landed on the floor behind my room in the vacuum....Then the security told us we are under lockdown because of some small arms fire...It hit me...It was a stray bullet...Wow...I wasnt really shaken but all I can say this isnt the first time the GZ is targeted nor is it the first time a stray bullet or a rocket lands within the area...

A colleague of mine, came to work today looking really distressed...We asked her what was the matter, she said, my cousin...my cousin got killed last night...He was shot...I didnt know what to say except, how???where??? She said in the Shaab area...He works with some Japanese company there..A group of armed men hurled in and shot everyone...Just like that...Then someone who knows my cousin went and called my uncle...who rushed to the scene to make sure it is my cousin and if it is to take his body...As my uncle tried to carry my cousin...A car exploded and now my uncle's leg has to get amputated....HUBBY and I just sat silent..All I was able to come out with was Wow...Felt really stupid...but what can you say in such a situation...."Im sorry to hear that"??? Well hell yeah I am sorry but what will that do...It was actually strange for her to come into work since in our culture when there is death in the family, there is a period of mourning...I guess she just wanted to get out of that atmosphere...atmosphere of death..."
Neurotic Iraqi Wife

Remember that scene for the end of the Vietnam war, the one with the helicopter evacuating the last people from the roof of the embassy, I wonder how long before we see a repeat.