Word: iraq
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There are no quiet days in Iraq, but people had been hopeful. Things certainly seemed to be better than just two years ago, even if there really wasn't any calm. The air was full of sandstorms and anticipation. The village-crushing bombs outside Mosul were disturbing but not daily occurrences. Then roadside bombs started injuring civilians again, and reports started accumulating of more and more shooting. In Baghdad, the bombs started getting bigger. And then on Wednesday, a series of explosions rocked the capital, including an enormous explosion in front of the Foreign Ministry, which lies close...
...roadside bombs injured 10 on Palestine Street, and a third roadside bomb injured three in a mostly Shi'ite area of western Baghdad. Mortars lobbed into central Baghdad injured four in a Sunni area and two in a mixed area. (See pictures of the U.S. troops' six years in Iraq...
...hard to assess that claim at the moment. There is a feeling of disbelief among Iraqis as they see images of twisted metal and bodies on their TV sets. Many had thought that the bad times were finally behind them. The violence dramatically punctuates the fact that Iraq is amid a critical and highly charged political season - one in which the country's instabilities are conflating with the activity of political parties and accompanying militias, creating alliances as they head for elections. Two intertwined issues dominate the vote: security and the U.S. Expect the explosions to get bigger...
...politician's gauge in the competition for who is the biggest Iraqi nationalist. Indeed, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki this week approved a referendum on the U.S.-Iraq Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). If approved by parliament, it would be on the same ballot as candidates in the parliamentary elections set for January. SOFA has thus far reduced U.S. control over key areas - such as Baghdad's Green Zone - and prohibited U.S. forces from entering Iraqi cities in most circumstances. President Barack Obama has pledged to withdraw U.S. forces by December 2011. But if Iraqis vote down the agreement...
...more recent date has some members of parliament and, especially, bureaucrats in the Oil Ministry concerned. That would be July 31, when parliament failed to pass a British-Iraqi security agreement. The British navy, which helped secure Iraq's gulf waters, then left the area. Now the oil-export terminals near Basra may be vulnerable - and the terminals facilitate over 70% of state revenue. The U.S. Navy has said it will pick up the slack, but eventually the Iraq navy must take responsibility. And it is still in training...