The New York Times: U.S. Study Paints Somber Portrait of Iraqi Discord

[Jack Rabbit]

From The New York Times
Published Sunday April 9

U.S. Study Paints Somber Portrait of Iraqi Discord
By Eric Schmitt and Edward Wong

An internal staff report by the United States Embassy and the military command in Baghdad provides a sobering province-by-province snapshot of Iraq's political, economic and security situation, rating the overall stability of 6 of the 18 provinces "serious" and one "critical." The report is a counterpoint to some recent upbeat public statements by top American politicians and military officials.

The report, 10 pages of briefing points titled "Provincial Stability Assessment," underscores the shift in the nature of the Iraq war three years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Warnings of sectarian and ethnic frictions are raised in many regions, even in those provinces generally described as nonviolent by American officials.

There are alerts about the growing power of Iranian-backed religious Shiite parties, several of which the United States helped put into power, and rival militias in the south. The authors also point to the Arab-Kurdish fault line in the north as a major concern, with the two ethnicities vying for power in Mosul, where violence is rampant, and Kirkuk, whose oil fields are critical for jump-starting economic growth in Iraq.

The patterns of discord mapped by the report confirm that ethnic and religious schisms have become entrenched across much of the country, even as monthly American fatalities have fallen. Those indications, taken with recent reports of mass migrations from mixed Sunni-Shiite areas, show that Iraq is undergoing a de facto partitioning along ethnic and sectarian lines, with clashes — sometimes political, sometimes violent — taking place in those mixed areas where different groups meet.

Read more.

[bemildred]

1. None of this seems new to me.

While true, in general, it seems like an "I'm in command" PR release more than anything. It's a concession of sorts that it admits the mess is a mess, but there is no sign of any acceptance of responsibility, or of taking any active and effective steps to improve the situation. They talk about it as though it was a weather report. "Tsk, tsk, sad about those Iraqi fellows, you know?"

[Jack Rabbit]

2. I don't think it is to most people

Nevertheless, just watch the Bushies pretend that don't know about any of this. When Iraq explodes like a powder keg, they'll say, "but, gee, guys, nobody told us how bad things were."