"Relative Peace"

NYT: Car Bombs Kill 60 at Market in Baghdad

... Abdul Hussein Ameer, 41, ran when he heard
the first blast shortly after 3 p.m. local time; he
is so familiar with the pattern of the bombers
that he knew another explosion was likely. But
before he could get out of his shop, where he
sells plastic containers and dishes, the second
bomb exploded.

“I hold the American forces responsible for
this,” he said, black soot on his face and clothes.
He said American troops were on the scene only
minutes before the blast and yet were unable to
stop it.

Fifteen minutes before the attack, a joint patrol
of American soldiers and Iraqi police had
stopped on the corner where the second bomb
exploded, posing for pictures, according to a
Reuters photographer who was embedded with
the American unit.

President Bush has acknowledged that such
attacks would be nearly impossible to eliminate.
He said during a news conference last week that
the immediate goal of the security plan was to
establish “relative peace.”