Adding to an already grim 10 year anniversary of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq, a flurry of suicide bombings and car bomb attacks tore through the capital city of Baghdad as well as the northern city of Mosul.
Over a dozen distinct attacks were reported nationwide, targeting Shi’ite neighborhoods as well as security forces, and at least 65 people were killed in the major attacks, with over 200 others wounded. The total death toll, including smaller attacks, was nearly 100.
The huge number of attacks, as well a the major death toll, reflects the growing capabilities of al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) and other militant factions, never really defeated in the first place, but which seem to be getting a shot in the arm with the Syrian civil war next door, and the growing control of the Syria-Iraq border by al-Qaeda styled Islamist rebels.
With Gulf nations throwing arms at the assorted Syrian rebels (and Britain and France hoping to join in on the fun) the weaponry is bound to trickle into Iraq as well, with AQI hoping to parlay this latest influx into another sectarian civil war.
US intervention was supposed to bring stability, prosperity, economic growth, respect for human rights, democratic flowering and other positive development. But instead, what have they got? And all of this chaos, carnage, and ruin is…thanks to whom?
Invasion of Iraq destroyed state governance, opening the door to criminal gangs, al Sadr, al Qua'ida, and the interference of all Iraq's neighbors. That legacy today continues to torment Iraq, but it is only logical to assume that eventually those chickens will come home to roost in the U.S. Causal chains are not just difficult to identify as they are being created; they are embarrassing. Hence, Americans try to avoid the issue, speaking of the problems "over there," but Iraq's problems are not just given by Americans, they are, almost surely, links in a long chain that will wind back to the U.S. The circle will close, but by then we Americans will no doubt have succeeded in forgetting, and so we will be surprised and confused and will plead innocence.
It's a good thing that Iraq is now consigned to media section 4. Otherwise some warhawks would be getting the 'itch' to go back and do it up right this time.
Actually they're still in Iraq working for Xe, or its latest morph and organizing the disruption campaign.