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Midday Open Thread: Iraqi Civil War |
by Jason Rosenbaum :: Filed Under Daily Briefing, Middle East / South Asia :: March 27th, 2008 @ 12:53 pm EST
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It's hard not to think the civil war in Iraq is back on with a vengence. Though Iraqi forces seem to have been stopped by the Mahdi Army in Basra, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is promising to pursue his fight against Shiite militias in Basra to "the end."
So far, 60 have been killed, along with an additional 13 in the heavily fortified Green Zone.
While the flash point seems to be the Iraqi governments ill-timed crackdown on militants, I can't help but wonder whether the breakdown of al-Sadr's truce wouldn't have happened anyway. If I were him, I'd try and create as much trouble for US and Iraqi forces as possible going into the election as possible. He held the lever and he chose to pull it. It was going to happen eventually.
Thoughts?
so incredibly depressing and sad…it is surreal. Almost beyond words. This is a problem crying out for a solution, but the Bush admin offers nothing except more of what has already failed.