I don't care if a member of al Qaeda is involved. It was a Sunni attack on Shi'ites. Al Qaeda is just another brand for the same thing. In Iraq its supposed to be the most vicious of the Sunni organizations. That doesn't mean that much. It simply means the Sunnis need an organization to counter balance the USA occupation. That is all that means.
These provinces want to split. They need to do that. It will save lives. The BEST evidence of the Civil War is the issues surrounding Kurkuk. The USA has no interest within that country. It has other bases nearby. Where do you think the 'No Fly Zones' were enforced from?
The international community, including the USA, doesn't want to see the provinces have their own sovereignty because there wouldn't be anyone to pay their bills. Ask what the central authority in Baghdad actually does for the people of Iraq. What do they do? They don't even provide security. After all, it was Maliki himself that doesn't want the USA to exit. It isn't the people that want the USA to stay, it's Maliki and his need for his own militia AGAINST the people of Iraq.
Here is what is going to happen and why Gerald Ford was right all along. The USA will remove their soldiers supposedly after the next major elections. The elections will go as planned and the USA will depart having lost soldiers between now and then. After the USA is out of Iraq the 'control' of the country will be handed over to the Iraqi military/police.
Do you actually believe on Day 2 after the USA leaves Iraq, the central authority will still having meaning? I don't. For years since Bush invaded that country, an illegal invasion that gives a lot of moral authority to the opposition, there have been 'community' level organization to protect themselves. Those organizations the West likes to call militias have been developing authority among the people.
On Day 2, the central authority in Baghdad will be meaningless and for some time things might go along as if nothing has changed, but, something will definately have changed. The 'Iraq military/police' will shift their loyalty and return to the people the control they have longed for since March of 2003.
Then one day.
The news headlines will read, "Anarchy has returned to Iraq."
And it will be over.
There will be a major confrontation between the strongest organizations and the central authority will be completely meaningless.
A man injured in a suicide bombing gets treatment in the Kazimiyah hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. Photograph: Khalid Mohammed/AP
Suicide bombs kill scores in Baghdad (click here)
At least 60 die near Shia shrine following arrest of suspected al-Qaida in Iraq leader
At least 60 people were killed and more than 125 injured this morning when two suicide bombers detonated explosive vests near the most important Shia Muslim shrine in Baghdad.
The attacks came 24 hours after a volley of explosions killed more than 80 people in Iraq's deadliest day in months, and raised fears of a fresh wave of sectarian violence following a period of relative calm....
