Baghdad Journal: May 12, 2006

May 12, 2006 — -- At city morgues and hospitals, the bodies come in by the dozens ... every day. Iraqis assassinated on the streets and in their homes.

Thaier Al-Ubaidi was one of them. He was a police officer in Baghdad -- dangerous work, but he wasn't killed on the job. He was killed last month on his way to buy dinner for his four children, the eldest, barely 14.

"A group of gunmen drove past in a car," said his brother Jasim. "They shot him five times."

"I took him to the hospital, but it was too late," said his other brother Firas. "It was his destiny to die that day."

Thaier was 37, a veteran of the Gulf War. He spent his free time praying, reading the Koran and raising his children. His family has his prayer beads still lying on the floor.

His son, Abdullah, can't be older than 5. "I hope my father enters heaven," he said.

His brothers say they don't know why Thaier was killed. He witnessed a murder the day before, maybe it had something to do with that. He was a Sunni Muslim, it may have been a sectarian killing. His family doesn't know, but they blame the culture of violence.

"It's all about hatred," Jasim said. "It is all based on hatred."

More than 700 Iraqis were killed last month. Thaier al-Ubaidi was just one of them. But, with a tear streaking down her cheek, his daughter Rasha said, "He was all I had."

So there it is. Not nice stuff…but not rare.

OK. I don't want to go to bed grumpy, so I will answer some more questions.

Do you sense any change in attitude from the Iraqi "man on the street" toward Americans or other westerners? Growing hostility or growing indifference?

Mostly, Iraqis just think I am Paul Bremer (former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority) and because of that don't like me. I had a member of the Iraqi Assembly once point at me and say, "Bremer." One of our translators would not walk near me on the street because he was afraid of being seen with Paul Bremer. No joke. But in general, I would hesitate to generalize too much. We don't get out on the streets as much as we used to, but insofar as we do, some Iraqis like us, some don't and many are afraid to talk to us at all. That has been fairly consistent.