Iraq in Splinters

When future historians write about the demise of the American empire, it seems doubtless that many will point to George W. Bush as causing, or hastening, our decline. Bush's combination of deregulation, costly wars, and unfunded tax cuts, has mired this country in an economic depression that seems to be without end. For all the mistakes Bush made in office, the most glaring seems to be the Iraq war. The war, fought for specious reasons that have only grown more questionable over time, has cost the U.S. untold trillions while making the region substantively less safe. The fact that Bush thought we could traipse into Iraq essentially without an endgame for how to keep the situation from devolving into civil war remains the height of irresponsibility. The Sunni-Shia split has caused fractures within the Muslim "Umma" essentially since Muhammad's death, and has proven to be at the root of post-Saddam violence.

With the U.S.'s complete military pullout less than a week ago, the situation in Iraq has gone from bad to worse. Three days ago, Iraqi President, Shiite Muslim, Nuri Al-Maliki ordered the arrest of Vice-President Tarik Al-Hashemi, a Sunni, for allegedly materially supporting terrorist bombings and assassinations. The two served together in a tenuous alliance following a power sharing deal that kept the country out of civil war a few years ago. State-run television has aired taped confessions of three men who are reportedly bodyguards for Hashemi. The men claim that Hashemi paid them to plant roadside bombs and carry out drive-bys targeting government officials. Many Iraqi's had expressed fear that the U.S. pullout would drive these sectarian tensions back to the forefront following about 4 years of relative peace.

Today, these tensions took a tragic and bloody turn. At least 14 separate bombings claimed at least 69 deaths while injuring hundreds more. In the Karrada neighborhood a suicide bomber reportedly drove an ambulance into a government building, leaving 25 dead in the deadliest attack of the morning. In a statement Prime Minister Maliki said "The timing of these crimes and the places where they were carried out confirm... the political nature of the targets." Today's attacks bode ominously for the future of Iraq without the U.S.

Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, held together the country with an iron fist. In the reconstituted Iraq, which has a Shiite majority, power sharing has been a source of great conflict. The Sunnis, who enjoyed a privileged position under Saddam, have felt increasingly marginalized. The sectarian conflict several years ago can be summed up thusly: Sunni's joined with Al-Qaeda in Iraq to carry out a guerilla insurgency intent on destabilizing the county. In response, "Shia death squads" attacked Sunni targets. Today's attacks seem to suggest that the county is headed back down that same road.

And what of the U.S.? The country has completed it's military pullout, but remains intensely invested in the future of the country. The multi-billion dollar embassy complex in Baghdad, illustrates that the U.S. will have a long term, substantial, presence in the country. Furthermore, the U.S. is worried about a Shia led Iraq allying with the Shia led Iran. It is an unenviable situation to be in, one that certainly weakens our credibility on an international scale. This is the type of concern that George W. Bush should have thought long and hard about, instead of endless lies about WMD, fear mongering, and militaristic masturbation about "shock and awe".