A lot of people, myself included have questioned George W. Bush about the war in Iraq. I have always liked the man, but that didn’t keep me from questioning the validity of sending our troops into the country and removing Saddam Hussein from power. Not that I was a great fan of Hussein, but I have always thought we should have focused more on Afghanistan and cleaning it up, rather than Iraq.

Even though Bush declared victory early on, it soon became clear that the war was not over. Remember how the attacks and suicide bombings escalated before the somewhat successful troop surge in 2007? Here is something to keep in mind about those attacks. American troops were often caught in the crossfire but it is important to remember who was attacking who. Not only were the insurgents attacking American forces, but they were also killing their own people. The Sunni and Shiite Muslims hate each other with a passion, only slightly less than they hate us. When the attacks were on the rise, they were targeting each other as much as they were targeting Americans, maybe more so.

The success of the troop surge came as a surprise to a lot of people. I wondered if it would work, but apparently, it has. Part of that success came from the fact that we basically paid local Iraqi tribes to align themselves with us instead of al-Qaida. That’s right, we gave them money to stop fighting us and instead, help us to combat the influence of al-Qaida. Let me ask a question here. What happens when those payments stop and the old animosities boil up to the top again? I think the answer to that is appearing as American forces scale back their operations in Iraq. The answer is a costly increase in attacks within Iraq, a price that is being paid in innocent human lives.

Yesterday in Iraq, 19 people were killed in three separate car-bomb attacks that were highly coordinated. Taking place in Ramadi, the capital of the Anbar province where the troop surge was highly successful, the first bomb went off near the provincial police headquarters, with the second explosion coming as rescuers rushed to the scene to help the injured. The third bomb exploded near the gates of the Ramadi hospital, about an hour later. The attacks were clearly coordinated to have a high causality count and to cause as much damage as possible.

The military leaders who are overseeing the withdraw from Iraq have said they can accelerate or slow down the process, as they see fit. While that may be true, the question remains in my mind; what happens after American forces are completely gone from Iraq? There is every indication that the violence subsided in the country only because of the monetary payments and the increased number of troops. What happens when our troops have all gone home and the money is not flowing to the tribal leaders?

The increase in violence has been attributed by some to the fact that Iraq will be holding elections in January. The idea is that al-Qaida is attempting to undermine the government of Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki and to influence those elections.While there may be some truth in that, I believe there is more to the story. The people in Iraq have shown themselves to be a very vindictive lot. The hate between the Sunni and Shiite Muslims rivals anything I have seen. Will the violence in Iraq escalate once again, once we have left Iraq?

This reminds me of how relations were between the North and the South after our own Civil War. A lot of our leaders felt the South had to be punished and they were treated badly. For a long time, the states who had seceded from the United States were treated like step children, but sooner or later our entire country had to come to the decision that it was better to let bygones be bygones. Had we not done so and continued the flow of hatred, who knows but what the Civil War would have broken out again? Iraq is at it’s own turning point and it’s citizens need to decide if they want to live in peace or if they want to continue killing each other. It’s their choice and when all is said or done, it is out of our hands.

Tags: Anbar Province, Car Bomb, George W. Bush, Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki, Ramadi, Saddam Hussein, Shiite Muslim, Sunni Muslim

This entry was posted on Monday, October 12th, 2009 at 6:49 am and is filed under News/Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.