In Iraq, even those who provide the welcome relief of laughter are targeted. What will it take, beyond the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops, for this senseless violence to cease?

From the Washington Post:

Spoofer of Iraq’s Chaos Becomes Another Victim

BAGHDAD, Nov. 20 — For the last three years, Walid Hassan had an impossible task. He had to make war-weary Iraqis laugh. Week after week, the comedian and broadcaster found inspiration in the turmoil and bloodletting. On his weekend television show, “Caricature,” he poked fun at the poor security, the long gas lines, the electricity blackouts and the ineffective politicians.

In Hassan’s world, nothing was sacred. And many Iraqis adored him. In a nation bottled up with frustration, he was their release. They would recognize him on the streets and uncork their plights. He would listen, and turn them into satire.

On Monday, Hassan, 47, a father of five children, became a victim of the war and chaos from which he drew his inspiration. A Shiite Muslim, he was found in the majority-Sunni neighborhood of Yarmouk in west Baghdad with multiple bullet wounds to his back and head, according to police. He was last seen by witnesses in a black car with a driver and two other passengers.

“He was a star in the galaxy of Iraqi arts,” said Ali Hanoon, the show’s director. “Now, he’s another sacrifice on the altar of this slaughtered country.”

Hassan, who also produced a political show, was the latest casualty in the Iraqi media world, which has suffered heavily since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 unleashed a wave of press freedom. So far, 133 reporters, cameramen and other media workers have been killed in Iraq, the vast majority of them Iraqi, according to Reporters Without Borders, a journalists advocacy group. [full text]