Iraqi attacks on the rise
A couple of years ago, before General David Petraeus’ famed troop surge into Iraq, the country was a very dangerous place to be. It didn’t matter if you were an American soldier or a civilian, it simply wasn’t safe. Realistically, it’s a little bit hard to be safe when the folks running around blowing things up don’t care if they blow themselves up in the process.
After the troop surge was in effect, the number of attacks dropped dramatically and things were looking up for the citizens of Iraq. By some accounts, violence has been down 90% and the country was certainly safer. After President Obama took office, he made it very clear that his priority was going to be Afghanistan, where he believed we face a greater threat from terrorists. Soon after taking office, he announced plans to draw down American forces in Iraq and to remove combat forces from the country by August 31, 2010. As that plan begins to be implemented, it appears the bombs have returned to Iraq. From The Associated Press:
A string of deadly bombings in Baghdad killed 21 people and wounded at least 64 others Monday, as the U.S. military reported its first combat death in Iraq in about three weeks.
The deadliest attack occurred in the Shiite slum of Sadr City when a parked car bomb exploded in a market, killing 10 people, including three women and four children, and wounding at least 28 others, said Iraqi police and medical officials.
A total of four bomb attacks struck the city over a two-hour period, primarily in Shiite neighborhoods where people were either shopping or looking for work.
The first attack occurred at 7:30 a.m. when a car bomb exploded in the center of the capital, killing at least six people and wounding 16, said an Iraqi police official, who described them as mostly day laborers looking for work.
Salim Mutar, 18, a laborer wounded at the blast site, described a large fireball rising into the air.
“It shook the area,” he said, who was hit in the arm by flying shrapnel. “I was so lucky.”
About an hour later, a bomb targeting a police patrol in eastern Baghdad killed three more people and wounded eight others, said another police official.
Two other car bombs then exploded minutes apart in different markets elsewhere in the eastern parts of the capital, including Sadr City, killing a total of 12 people and wounding 40, said a security official.
In Sadr City, witnesses described chaos in the aftermath of the bombing. Local resident, Adnan al-Sudani, 37, rushed to the scene after the explosion and said he saw “several people dead and some burned.”
“When the Iraqi army forces arrived, they began firing randomly at people gathered to disperse them,” he said, adding that people responded by throwing stones at the soldiers.
It was not clear if any of the attacks were connected. All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
It is really sad to see this happening, but is not entirely unexpected. To be honest, these people have been at each other’s throats for a long time before we ever came on the scene. Simply put, the different sects in Iraq don’t get along with each other much better than they get along with us.
Before President Obama even took office, he was making the case that the Iraqi government had to take more responsibility for the security of their country, thereby reducing the role of our troops inside Iraq. I have to agree with him on this point. Our troops can not stay in Iraq indefinitely; they have to leave sometime, whether in 2010 or some other time in the future. It is time the Iraqis tried standing on their own two feet, but I am not sure what results to expect. If they can not get past their disagreements with each other and decide it’s time to live in peace instead of trying to blow up their neighbors at every turn, then there’s not a thing we can do about it. We have given them the chance and the opportunity to have peace in their country. What they choose to do with it is up to them.
