In news that will surprise hardly anyone, the Green Zone is casting a pall of remembrance over Viet Nam veterans:

A number of mortar rounds struck the Green Zone on Tuesday, with estimates ranging from 10 to more than thirty. Eyewitnesses reported smoke rising near the US embassy compound. A US spokesman initially reported no fatalities, but police sources are now saying three were killed and 25 wounded.

The BBC has the lowest count at 10 mortars, Reuters cites a US spokesman who said there had been around a dozen explosions, AP reports the sound of at least 23 mortars was heard in central Baghdad, and VOI's piece indicates there may have been two separate barrages spaced about a half-hour apart that totaled more than thirty.

Eyewitness told VOI that ten mortars struck the Green Zone just minutes after 4:00 pm local time, then a source inside Maliki's office reported, "More than 20 mortar shells fell today at 4:30 pm (BLT) near the residence of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki inside the Green Zone." … Such attacks are not uncommon--a recent UN report estimated they occur daily--but few days see more than five shells.

The US spokesman Reuters cited said that there had been no fatalities, but had no information on whether anyone had been wounded in the strike. Reuters' latest report cites police sources who say two Iraqis and one Filipino were killed and 25 wounded in the attacks.

It’s tragic, but certainly not surprising, that these attacks occur quite often. It’s also not too surprising that they get reported so seldom. Somehow my imagination balks at the idea of MNF-I mentioning them at their version of the 5 o’clock follies. I’m also relieved no US personnel were killed, although a cynical bastard would suggest that a week from now MNF-I will casually refer to the one dead GI in the mortar attack.

Firing a mortar is a bit complex, requiring knowledge of trigonometry (or at least the use of some good reference material) and a good working knowledge of trajectories, distance and elevation, and propellant charges. It's not quite a spur of the moment attack, although if the UN is right these guys might have 20 or 30 marked firing positions spread out in an arc around the Green Zone, with charge rates scribed into the stone walls.

The last announced mortar attack I know of was way back in early April, when John “Sneers at death” McCain and Lindsey “How much for that rug?” Graham did their famous shopping trip in a Baghdad market to prove how safe the city was. As you may remember, the press uncivilly mentioned the company of infantry and Apache helicopters that accompanied them.

When Senator McCain was planning his Juy 4th desperation return tour to exploit wirness some brave men reenlisting over the holiday I urged him not to go:

You got your cheap photo op and 30 minutes after your press conference insurgents lobbed six mortar bombs into the area where you were. Then the next day they went into that same market and ambushed and killed 21 people.

When you invade a helpless country, coming in shooting, and continue shooting for more than four years, even right through a civil war that was the result of your unwarranted invasion, those of us who spent time in the recent unpleasantness in Southeast Asia can tell you not to be surprised when the locals start to think it’s time for you to go. A mortar barrage is the occupied country’s version of the aloha lei. Just remember what Alma Burke says at the end of From Here To Eternity

“They say if the flower lei floats back to shore, you’ll return.”

We may just have to leave by plane and helicopter, and not by boat.

UPDATE: MNF-I has finally agreed that a US service member was killed in the attack. It's possible the first reports were just the automatic denial.