Bad news from Iraq: Funeral industry suffers as death toll drops
posted at 11:10 am on October 17, 2007 by Allahpundit
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Imagine Fox News doing a story last year during the spiraling sectarian warfare entitled, “For Iraqi bodybag manufacturers, business is booming!” Okay, now imagine the opposite of that. Here you go. Courtesy of McClatchy, the dark lining in a brightening cloud:
A drop in violence around Iraq has cut burials in the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery here by at least one-third in the past six months, and that’s cut the pay of thousands of workers who make their living digging graves, washing corpses or selling burial shrouds…
Dhurgham Majed al Malik, 48, whose family has arranged burial services for generations, said that this spring, private cars and taxis with caskets lashed to their roofs arrived at a rate of 6,500 a month. Now it’s 4,000 or less, he said.
Truly, the morticians of Iraq have earned the right to call the man “Betray Us.” Meanwhile, for our military and/or embed readers, explain this to me. Diyala is still a “hot” area, is it not? Why start the surge drawdown there instead of in Anbar, where the locals are already shouldering more of the load?
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Death toll drops, cemetary workers hardest hit.
Glad to see McClatchy focusing on the important issues.
JammieWearingFool on October 17, 2007 at 11:17 AM
I blame Bush…and question the timing.
I also repeat my summary from LGF:
People used to be dying to Get in. Now business is completely dead.
amerpundit on October 17, 2007 at 11:19 AM
Records for Farve. Grave diggers starve.
(To much of a stretch???)
Editor on October 17, 2007 at 11:19 AM
Right-wing radio strikes again….
/sarc off
jdawg on October 17, 2007 at 11:22 AM
umm….
lan astaslem on October 17, 2007 at 11:23 AM
What the heck is McClatchy? The militant wing of the Onion?
12thman on October 17, 2007 at 11:25 AM
Last night I told my fiancee this was an article in the Onion, and she laughed. Then I told her it was an actual news article, and she almost cried.
MadisonConservative on October 17, 2007 at 11:31 AM
I saw this on Yahoo! nooz last night and nearly split a gut laughing. It seems that the MSM has now taken to wearing their brain on their sleeve as well.
Nethicus on October 17, 2007 at 11:36 AM
You’ve got to be kidding me with this. Question: was this intended to be a negative article or a positive article? I seriously can’t tell. It seems like they may just point highlighting a measurement for success for a change. Perhaps we shouldn’t be so critical of them here?
Zetterson on October 17, 2007 at 11:47 AM
AP, I think thye’re implementing the “New York, New York” test, i.e., if they can make it work there, they can make it work just about anywhere.
Bob Owens on October 17, 2007 at 11:48 AM
The unit leaving Diyala is a Cav unit, which is smaller in structure than the Heavy Brigade Combat Team which is expanding responsibility to replace it. So instead of thinking of the drawdown beginning in Diyala as a removal of resources from Diyala, you need to understand that it’s certain resources being removed from Diyala while other resources with greater numbers & capability are shifted in to replace them.
From the Time article:
You’re curious as to why resources are being shifted from a still-contested Diyala - in terms of combat power, they aren’t.
BillINDC on October 17, 2007 at 11:52 AM
It’s Favre.
BadgerHawk on October 17, 2007 at 12:09 PM
Not sure who gets that quote… I think I mangled it slightly, and it may have been George Will. In any case, this is definitely an Onion News quality story…
Will Onion News’ hitcounter suffer, seeing as their niche is already being filled by “real” News?
gekkobear on October 17, 2007 at 12:27 PM
ROFL
On-my-soap-box on October 17, 2007 at 12:42 PM
But it’s mispronounced “Farve”. So it’s inevitable that someone would spell it that way.
The Monster on October 17, 2007 at 2:44 PM
Farve, Favre, Chevre… who’s counting?
For the record, I actually knew it’s Favre, but still mispelled it. That’s how lame I am.
Editor on October 17, 2007 at 2:51 PM
Thanks for nothing, Bill - since you got that spot on, Big A won’t need my input anymore…heh.
major john on October 17, 2007 at 5:48 PM