Things I didn't know

Top Official Shot Dead in Baghdad

Kassim Imhawi was hit by gunmen who pulled up beside him as he traveled into the city from a western suburb.
Mr Imhawi was director-general of the ministry and a senior adviser to the interim Iraqi government.

There's an interim government? Geez, what do they think about all the chaos?

Insurgents have frequently targeted Iraqi government officials and ministry
compounds.
They view the interim government as collaborators with the US.

Well, OK, now that I understand that there really is an interim government in place, I guess I should have figured that out.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is to meet discuss the plans in Washington on Thursday with US Secretary of State Colin Powell and his successor Condoleezza Rice.
The UN has maintained a minimal but growing presence in Iraq since a bomb attack on its Baghdad headquarters in August 2003 killed a senior UN envoy and 21 others.
After pulling out of Iraq for a year, Secretary General Kofi Annan has allowed foreign staff to return in small numbers.
The UN has less than 60 staff currently in Iraq and plans to have just 25 electoral experts in the country for the 30 January elections, alongside around 250 Fijian
peacekeeping troops currently being trained.

Fijian peacekeeping troops. That means that there's Fijian soldiers. I had never pictured Fiji as ever having a need for an army, what with being surrounded by all that water. Now, on top of being sad that poor Kassim Imhawi nd his 8 bodyguards were shot and/or killed, I'm sad to try and picture people from one of the nicest-looking places on earth wearing camo and carrying automatic weapons.

I didn't know that people were still trying to claim that they were an actual working government. I didn't know that the UN was actually planning to come through with peacekeepers for the elections, and I sure as heck didn't know that they were going to come from Fiji. I feel very uninformed, today.