A Not-At-All-Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Hospital

At first sight, you might be inclined to shrug off this MSNBC story of a pregnant woman being killed by US soldiers as nothing new.

Shots were fired to disable the vehicle. Coalition forces later received reports from Iraqi police that two women had died from gunshot wounds ... and one of the females may have been pregnant... The loss of life is regrettable and coalition forces go to great lengths to prevent them.

Yeah, yeah. Never mind that she was apparently rushing to the Maternity Hospital, possibly to give birth: it was either her or us, Sarge!

So what's new? Well, read on a bit:

Meanwhile, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Wednesday declared a state of emergency for a month in oil-rich Basra which is in the grip of a power struggle among Shiite factions...

Security forces will be deployed in the streets of Basra day and night and they will also conduct search operations, a government source told Reuters, giving more details...

Basra, whose oil accounts for virtually all of Iraq’s state revenues, is a major prize for all parties.

In other words, it seems, as far as I can tell, given the deplorable lack of real reporting on the subject, that the real problem in Basra right now is that the wrong Shiites (i.e. not the US-backed puppets) are in control.

UPDATE: Why Kos all too often sucks:

To be clear, this is not the fault of the troops who were simply carrying out orders. It's the fault of the politicians who have put them in this horrific no-win quagmire.

Don't blame the troops! Don't blame the troops! Don't blame the troops! Never mind the brother of the pregnant lady (who was driving) says he never heard warning shots...