What's been unleashed in Iraq is going to happen whether we're there or not. My understanding is that the principals in these attacks are religious extremists within Iraq (Sunni vs. Shi'a, and in-fighting between sects thereof), militias, and rogue groups related to various of the corrupt officials in government (including Chalabi and the INC). Some of these are being aided by local interlopers. For example, the Iraqi Da'awa Party -- a sect of Shi'a which Prime Minister Jaffari represents -- has strong ties with the same party in Iran. (After Da'awa was outlawed in Iraq, its adherents went to Iran and even fought alongside Iran in the Iran-Iraq war. Their return is not popular in Iraq. And Jaffari isn't even considered an Iraqi; he lived in London for 23 years and calls England home.)
However, the Shi'a people in general are not extremists, except perhaps in comparison to secular modernist Sunnis. Most simply do not have the will to fight a fundamentalist takeover by the more extreme among them. And it seems the fundamentalists have the upper hand.
Women in Baghdad can no longer go out alone, no matter their religion; they must be accompanied by two men in public, more for their protection than anything else. They're being forced through intimidation and physical attacks to conform to the dress code of "good" Muslim women, and have lost the jobs they had before the invasion. Rapes, abductions and murders of women for failing to observe so-called 'traditional' Islamic law are common.
I won't even venture to comment on the likes of Zarqawi, except to say that if he exists he's just one more cow patty in this pasture of political excrement.
So we have a landscape where the majority of Iraqis, no matter their political or religious background:
- feel insecure 24/7, even in their own homes -- if they still have one
- do not have reliable electric and water service two years after the invasion
- have lost their jobs or, in the case of the men, are having to take work at far less than what they earned before (when they CAN find a job)
- are caught between a foreign occupying force, sectarian skirmishes and extremist oppression
- and see little in the way of representation or action on their behalf from the 'elected' government.
Talk about the devil and the deep blue sea.
This is the mess Bush** has left Iraq in. And no matter how long we stay there it isn't going to be resolved by our presence. It's only exacerbated by what most Iraqis of any persuasion regard as a US occupation, and a fractured US puppet government that's pocketing reconstruction funds while doing virtually nothing to assist the suffering Iraqi people.
We need to get out of there...mainly because we are NOT trusted. If this is TRULY about democracy then let the Iraqis determine their future by whatever means they choose -- for themselves. It's going to be painful no matter what, now.