Forty Shiite religious pilgrims were killed and at least 68 injured by two roadside bombs in the Iraqi holy city of Karbala. This comes in the midst if a constitutional crisis in Iraq — largely unreported here or drown out by more attention-grabbing disasters – brought on by the inability to form a government in the wake of the March 7th elections. Iraq remains in the hands of a caretaker government of Nuri al-Maliki, himself trying to negotiate a leadership role in the next government and running on the strength of his record. The record doesn’t look as good as it did a couple months ago.
The unanswered question is Iraq is whether the relative peace the country has experienced for the last few months is the new reality, or if it is calm before the storm. As the U.S. pulls out, much of the financial and security “glue” which held the ramshackle peace together will be removed as well. Can the Iraqis replace it with a glue of their own? Sooner of later they will have to.
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The Forester said:
If the Iraqis are determined to kill each, there’s little we can do to stop them – unless we employ the kind of occupation forces & tactics made famous by the Nazis. I doubt that we will & pray that we don’t.
July 29th, 2010 at 9:10 pm
Think Too Much said:
I believe what we are about to see in Iraq is history repeat itself. Once a dominant power, in this case the United States Armed Forces, withdrawals from an unstable area where the populace has relied on for support the people naturally come to a realization that they must survive on their own. What does that mean? That means greed, murder, and survival of the fittest comes to light.
When the human being must survive on his own, without the rich support the United States has given, you will see more violence among the tribes, cultures, and other demographics occur. In that case you will see groups forming and one day a strong, violent group will rise to power.
I pray that all of the work that our Armed Forces has done over there doesn’t get destroyed by ruthless, uncaring individuals. I pray that the rebel groups that do rise to power after the fall of this Iraqi government have some form of heart to move Iraq forward.
Sorry for playing devil’s advocate. But after visiting Iraq and interacting with the Iraqi public I have realized the adage of “You can’t help people who are not willing to help themselves”.
Thoughts?
August 2nd, 2010 at 1:48 pm