Is Iraq Really Getting Better?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in The War On Terrorism, The World, War169 Iraqis dead in two days? Jeezus…
From the AP:
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Suicide bombers targeted Shiite pilgrims in the south and police recruits in central
Iraq, and a roadside bomb killed five U.S. soldiers, bringing Thursday’s death toll to at least 116 people in a series of attacks as politicians tried to form a coalition government.The two-day toll from insurgent attacks rose to 169, reflecting a dramatic upsurge in bloodshed following the Dec. 15 parliamentary elections.
And what’s even worse is that the different sides of the government are blaming each other for the attacks.
Iraq’s prime minister denounced the violence as an attempt to derail the political process at a time when progress was being made toward including the Sunnis in a new, broad-based government and thereby weakening the Sunni-led insurgency.But Iraq’s largest Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, blamed the violence on Sunni Arab groups that fared poorly in the elections. SCIRI warned that Shiite patience was wearing thin, and it accused the U.S.-led coalition forces of restraining the Iraqi army and its police forces.
Sure, democracy is messy, but if this keeps up I shudder to think what the future holds for democracy’s chances in Iraq.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 5th, 2006 and is filed under The War On Terrorism, The World, War. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 5th, 2006 at 12:33 pm
The other day I heard some talking head say, “the situation in Iraq is now out of George Bush’s control”, and I think she was right. What else can our country do in Iraq to make it better? Giving them elections and security forces doesn’t seem to be stopping the violence.
January 5th, 2006 at 2:01 pm
You are surprised at this outcome?
January 5th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
Yes, I’m surprised that this many people were taken out in two days. I guess you aren’t, but these kinds of numbers really have a head turning factor for me, and I haven’t really heard much about it around the blogosphere.
And to Blue’s point, Iraq was out of Bush’s control the moment he okayed the flawed strategy to secure the peace. It’s been over from the beginning unfortunately…
January 5th, 2006 at 4:17 pm
Its crazy how 4 teenagers can bring down an entire nation. Suicide bombings are the most effective weapon I have ever heard of in any war, simply because of the headlines and photo-ops they can bring when you strike a big crowd in this day and age.
I read an article in “the economist” last month that suggested there may be less than 2,000 insurgents left in iraq actively fighting; Also I heard on NPR about this urban legend named Juba, a sniper who has claimed to have personally assasinated over 10% of all the american casualties in Iraq. I have no idea if these are true but honestly it wouldn’t suprise me if they were.
I wonder how many road-side bombs around Bagdad or Ramadi are being set by the same gang of 15 kids who just haven’t been caught. It doesn’t take a nation of experts to craft those munitions either. Unused mortar shells are ubiquitous in iraq and any dumb teenager with internet access can figure out how to build a shape charge.
Meanwhile, all I hear from democrats is how Iraq is a lost cause and the country is plunging into chaos and the entire population is armed against the U.S. I got to hand it to those suicide-bombing kids; their target is us and boy have they been efficient and effective.
January 5th, 2006 at 4:34 pm
Noodles.
Are you completely lost on this subject? The millitary puts insurgent attacks at about 75 per day in Iraq. This is some hard working gang of 15 teenage miscreants that we have over in Iraq. Get real man, how many casualties (civillian as well as military) will it take for this administration and the Right to take this insurgency seriously? Granted these are not all the flashy suicide type, but they are real attempts on the lives of others. Do you realize how many attacks that is per year? 27,000 roughly. Can you even fathom that? This isn’t the work of teenage boys with firecrackers, you dolt.
January 5th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Noodles, you certainly aren’t listening to this Democrat. And frankly, your rhetoric is kind of tiring.
John, dolt? Really? Come on…enough with the name calling.
January 6th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
Yeah, Sorry about the dolt bit, but that was a particularly ignorant posting. Got the better of me.
January 9th, 2006 at 4:52 pm
Eagleburger was one of those attending Bush’s “summit” last week. I have posted including his comment…
“You’ve got several hundred years of antagonism between Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites. If you think anybody can predict success at this stage you are wrong.�
That, really, is the problem in a nutshell.
Multiply that by the loss of power by the Sunnis and their fear of reprisals by a Shia government….
Multiply that by the Shia desires for satisfaction for the decades of oppression under the Sunni and secular rule of Saddam…
And, to add insult, the US went and stirred that ants nest (Argentinian fire ants??) with their foot.
The solution?
Perhaps it lies in finding out how the three factions in Iraq couyld best meet their respective ambitions and nationhood instead of assuming that AMerica knows best.
Perhaps the answer lies in accepting that the final outcome might not favour American interests in the way that was hoped.
Instead, perhaps, the effort should be to ensure that Kurd, Shia and Sunni interests are all met.
That might need acceptance of three nations in place of one?
January 9th, 2006 at 7:16 pm
This link might help -
Particularly -
The Oxymoron of Imposed Democracy
IF A COUNTRY lacks the preconditions for democracy, can this infrastructure be forcefully supplied by an external source? Few would argue in favor of conquering countries simply to make them democratic, but democratic great powers–particularly Great Britain and the United States–have sometimes conquered countries for other reasons and then have struggled to remake them as friendly democracies before withdrawing. Those who are nostalgic for empire view this as a policy with a future. They point to the establishment of courts, a free press and rational public administration in British colonies, without which democracy would probably be scarcer in the developing world today, since most of the postcolonial states that have remained almost continuously democratic–such as India and some West Indian island states–are former British possessions. Still, other former British colonies have failed to achieve democratic stability: Pakistan and Nigeria oscillate between chaotic elected regimes and military dictatorships; Sri Lanka has held elections that stoked the fires of ethnic conflict; and Malaysia has averted ethnic conflict only by limiting democracy. The list contains even more parlous cases, from Burma to Zimbabwe
January 9th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
Hey Pro. I made your URL a link since it was breaking our WordPress template. Hope you don’t mind.