Many of the comments on the murder of Iraqi Journalist Atwar Bahjat made much of the reaction of bystanders. Or rather, the non-reaction.

Here's a US equivalent, from 2000.

Amanda Milan, a beautiful 25-year-old black woman, a transsexual, bid her friends good-bye and was on her way home at 5a.m.on June 21 when she was subjected to gender-slurs shouted by a black man. Although she didn't know him, it was the same man, say witnesses, who'd been verbally harassing Amanda and her transgendered sisters earlier that night. The man yelled such phrases as "You're a man!", and "I know that's a dick you have in between your legs!"Amanda shouted back at him, and a verbal confrontation ensued. Amanda turned to leave and walked toward a fleet of N.Y. yellow cabs parked along 46th Street. The man was handed a knife by another man, who egged him on. As Amanda was opening a cab door, her sisters and many other witnesses watched helplessly as the man ran up to her from behind and slashed her throat, severing her jugular, before fleeing. While a few bystanders tried to help, several of the yellow cab drivers parked along the street cheered and applauded as Amanda bled to death.She was conscious for the first two minutes, struggling to breathe through her own blood. She died on the way to St. Vincent's Hospital. Both suspects are in custody, awaiting a grand jury indictment.

I don't know. That people are people. That it's up to all of us, no matter where we are, to fight against this kind of thing. That the US is "beautiful and flawed" as the song "Democracy, Whisky, Sexy" has it. That this kind of thing insults the brave men and women who are actually putting their lives on the line in Iraq and elsewhere.

Oh well, at least one of the murderers is in jail, and will be till 2020 or so.

Of course, the current stereotypical New York cab driver is a Pakistani...

I'm not familiar with that story, but the cheering bit smacks of urban legend.

Minor detail left out of coverage at the advocacy sites:

According to her friends, Ms. Milan told the man that she, too, was a man and asked him whether he wanted to fight. Witnesses said he declined, and she walked away. Then, a second man, who the police have identified as Eugene Celestine, 26, handed Mr. McCuller a knife, which prosecutors said he plunged into Ms. Milan's throat.

Questiojn: Why is the U.S. military -- "the best trained, best-led, best equipped fighting force known to man" -- being defeated in a country iof 25 million people with a shattered economy, a demoralized and weak population, no army and no visible major outside supplier?

Oops, sorry. We don't ask unhappy questions here. This is Fantasy Hour.

Posted by wk at May 13, 2006 01:53 PM

The only place we are losing is in the enemy propaganda (US PRESS). Some people are gulable enough to believe them.

You are aware of US PRESS policy of considering all US Military press releases as unconfirmed data and not using them?
AQ gets front page and is treated as fact by those same "reporters".

For those who believe in AQ (and their PR agencies), we are losing.
Name a fight and location we have lost. Provide accurate verifiable details.

In other words, PROVE YOUR CASE.
Repeatedly stating something does not make it so...

Hey Baghdad Bob, keep telling yourself those lies. By every single relevant standard of living, the Iraqis are worse off now than they were under Saddam. To top it off, there's no law and order, your Bush crony friends have skimmed tens of billions for work not performed and the Pentagon is so desperate that they've stooped to calling insurgent attacks tank accidents.

The U.S. military has been horrible misused, and our nation bas been betrayed by radical liars who have America and every single thing it stands for. Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld, and those arpund them, are war criminals and incompetent idiots.

They, and you and Mudville Gazette, represent the very worst of we have to offer. I'm ashamed of the whole lot of you. Join the other team. You've been working for them all along.

wk, get a grip. you're entitled to an opinion... just happens to be the wrong opinion. on the other hand, greyhawk and the rest of our military will defend -- with their lives -- if necessary your right to be wrong... And given that you see no hope, no progress in Iraq I know 2 things (1) you have not been there, and (2) you only troll the milblogs and don't really read them. Get a grip. These are the BEST the WORLD has to offer...

WK is posting from Europe. Don't believe it when it claims to be American.