Needlenose

From November 5th, 2003 to sometime in 2005, Swopa used to regularly post ‘Groundhog Day’ news bits covering what seemed to be the same news of one or a few US soldiers blown to bits or some attack on civilians in the Iraqi Quicksand.

Then for a time, things seemed to stabilize.  Shrubya claimed it was his surge, Petraeus claimed credit for the military’s initiative to bribe the Sunni insurgents, and the reality-based community reckoned it was because most conflict neighborhoods had already been ‘cleansed’ and the US troops withdrew into their fortifications (removing easy targets).

Well it seems that minus the intra-Shi’ite political maneuverings, Groundhog Day appears to be making a comeback.  In today’s news, 3 more US soldiers were killed in a bombing, and suicide attacks are back to being regular news stories.

Swopa really called it when he mused that Obama had walked into a policy trap set for him by Shrubyian dead-enders in the military.

Obama really needs to take a lesson from Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon a few years back – otherwise, he could well be facing another several years of Groundhog Days as various Iraqi factions pull off stunts designed to keep us trapped in Quicksand.

*Update* UK PM Gordon Brown apparently doesn’t read the same news that Swopa & I read – apparently the British there was a ‘success!’ As a village idiot once said: “Heckuva job, Brownie!”

Unpleasant signs of what Iraq’s future holds continue to pop up in the supposedly “quiet” areas of the country. Reuters reports this from Kurdistan in the north:

At least five Iraqis were killed and more than 20 wounded Wednesday when gunfire erupted during a demonstration in Kirkuk, where Kurds are bidding for more control of the oil-rich northern city.

Several thousand Arab and Turkmen protesters marched on the headquarters of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), one of two main Kurdish factions, and surrounded the building, chanting “No to federalism, Kirkuk is Iraqi.”

Kirkuk’s chief of police said two people were killed in a burst of gunfire. Doctors said three more people died later at a nearby hospital and at least 20 were wounded.

Meanwhile, another Reuters article describes the plight of minority Christians in the Shiite south:

Since the war that toppled Saddam, armed groups have looted and set ablaze several liquor stores in the once freewheeling city, where Shi’ite religious parties now wield power and seek to impose strict moral regulations, similar to Iran’s.

More than 400 liquor stores run by Christians, the only community allowed to sell alcohol under the former Baathist government, were forced to close in the immediate aftermath of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

. . . Iraqi Christians are terrified of armed Shi’ite groups, which have names like God’s Vengeance, God’s Party and the Islamic Bases Organization.

Their members roam the streets to chase mobsters, drug addicts and prostitutes, exacting their brand of what they call God’s law.

The common thread in these stories is ethnic majorities seeking to impose their political and social will by force, with virtually no resistance from the U.S. (which is too busy trying to keep its own troops from being blown up to bother with protecting Iraqi minorities).

Juan Cole has a more extensive roundup of recent news from Basra, including uncontrolled smuggling of oil and illegal drugs that the British openly confess they don’t have the troops to deal with.