Recent Iraqi Elections Appear to Have Contributed To Rising Violence

[kpete]

Report Offers Gloomy View of Insurgencies
Escalation of Violence in Iraq, Afghanistan Cited

By William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 28, 2006; 4:00 PM

The Defense Intelligence Agency today presented a relatively gloomy assessment of the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, reporting that recent Iraqi elections appear to have contributed to rising sectarian violence and that Afghan insurgents have sharply escalated their attacks.

In written and oral testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Army Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, the DIA director, described the insurgencies in the two countries as remarkably resilient as they battle U.S.-backed governments and the military forces of U.S.-led coalitions.

..........

"Reporting indicates sectarian violence is increasing," although the trend is hard to quantify, he said. "The elections appear to have heightened tension and polarized sectarian divides." He referred to voting in December for a new permanent parliament under the country's recently ratified constitution. A new government has yet to be formed as a result of the elections because of persistent squabbling among Iraqi factions.

Maples said that "the perception of sectarian violence is increasing" in both Sunni areas and those dominated by the Shiite Muslim majority, and that "we continue to see a rise" in attacks led by al Qaeda in Iraq against Shiites and their religious shrines.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/28/AR2006022800874.html

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. It's violence due to the "run up" to the civil war, I think.

[bullimiami]

2. the election was screwy and the iraqis know it.

bushco was trying to devise an election outcome that suited them as they have been trying to remake iraq into a giant feeding trough for their friends.

guess what. they are blowing it. total miscalculation. they figured they could force anyone to do what they wanted.

[stillcool]

3. hey kpete!....check out this article...

Sporadic Violence or Imperial Meddling?

By Mike Whitney
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article12117.htm

02/28/06 "ICH" -- -- The events of the last week have created considerable uncertainty among Iraq-watchers about what is actually taking place on the ground. It is increasingly difficult to know who is generating the violence and why. Particularly puzzling, is trying to identify the motives behind the destruction of the Golden Dome Mosque and the massive reprisals which occurred with such astonishing speed that they seemed to be pre-arranged.

Were they?

Were the “grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week’s bombing”…”which killed more than 1,300 Iraqis” (Washington Post) merely a spontaneous reaction to the destruction of the Askariya Mosque, or were they part of a broader strategy to incite civil war?

In Max Fuller’s seminal article, “For Iraq, ‘The Salvador-Option, becomes Reality”, Fuller points out that the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s death squads were, in fact, trained by agents from the CIA who had honed their skills in Vietnam and El Salvador. (Recently even the New York Times has admitted that these groups received American training) Fuller sees the same pattern appearing in Iraq as in other American-backed counterinsurgency operations. He says:

“In Iraq the war comes in two phases. The first phase is complete: the destruction of the existing state, which did not comply with the interests of British and American capital. The second phase consists of building a new state tied to those interests and smashing every dissenting sector of society.”

also Riverbends post...http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
and DahrJamail's....http://dahrjamailiraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000365.php

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. Golly! The geniuses in the Pentagon have opened their eyes.

Now, if they can get to thinking that the only possible solution is to get out of the Iraqi's country...

Naaah..that's too obvious.