BAGHDAD -- We may have dodged the bullet.
Readers of this blog in recent days know that I've been very alarmed about the violence going around me. I don't live in the Green Zone, so I'm not insulated from it as much as they are, and I don't give much heed to diplomatic happy talk. But so far today, it seems quiet around Iraq and politicians seem -- for the moment, at least -- to have convinced their followers to stand down. The Sunnis have made noises about coming back to the negotiating table and that's a good sign. There also was no evidence of any conflict between various parts of the security forces, which was a chief concern of mine, considering how deeply embedded the various militias are to the police, Army, etc.
But still... The curfew is due to lift tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Baghdad and its surrounding towns are still piano-wire tense. The potential for mayhem remains high. That said, I hope we won't see a resumption of violence tomorrow, despite the carnage of the past four days.
It is as yet impossible to tally up the death and destruction, but many (mostly Sunni) shrines and mosques have been either occupied and rededicated, damaged or destroyed. At least 200 people have been killed across the country and it's probably higher. I simply don't believe the Iraqi "government's" assertions that only a few mosques were damaged and the loss of life much less than reported in the "exaggerating" media. The track record for truth-telling by Ibrahim al-Jaafari's "government" is too tarnished to take their soothing words too seriously.
But, as I said, perhaps we dodged a bullet on this. I said in an earlier post that we would be very, very lucky to avoid a civil war. Well, we may have gotten so lucky.
This time.
the only way to fix iraq is to bring Saddam back and give him Anything that he wants. It will be a Lot cheaper, and the only fix, but he will have to create thos Mass Graves that We Said he created, though Blair has said we exagerated. Not 500K, more like 5K. We created them as did the Iran/Iraq war.
Chris - thanks much for the reports.
One thing - the constant quotes around “government” in reference to the Iraqis is getting a little repetitive. Their current leadership either qualifies as one, or it doesn’t. If they don’t in your estimation, why bother even using the term, with or without quotes, in referring to them? Surely there’s a more accurate term out there - ‘empty chairs’ or something.