WP, Eugene Robinson: Iraq's Surging Violence

[DeepModem Mom]

Iraq's Surging Violence
By Eugene Robinson
Tuesday, March 11, 2008; Page A19

Has anyone noticed that Iraq, supposedly transformed into an oasis of peace and tranquility by George W. Bush's troop surge, is growing less peaceful and tranquil by the day?

The nation's attention has been riveted by the presidential campaign, with its compelling characters and its edge-of-your-seat story line. Iraq is treated almost as a theoretical issue: What would happen there if Barack Obama became president, as opposed to what would happen if Hillary Clinton became president, as opposed to what would happen if John McCain became president? There has been little debate about what's happening in Iraq right now.

That seems likely to change.

The past several weeks have seen a recrudescence of the kind of horrifying, spectacular violence that the Decider's surge was supposed to have ended....

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When the Bush administration celebrates a 60 percent reduction in overall violence in Iraq, it's easy to forget that this is compared with June 2007, when the sectarian civil war was raging and bombings with scores of victims were a regular occurrence. The surge managed only to reduce the level of violence from apocalyptic to agonizing -- and now even those gains seem to be slipping.

Bush's surge was designed to give the Iraqi government the necessary breathing space for Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to reach vital compromises. President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki showed their gratitude this month by rolling out the red carpet, literally, for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad....

So violence seems to be creeping back, the Iraqi government is showcasing its developing friendship with Iran, and -- oh, yes -- these achievements are costing American taxpayers around $12 billion a month, according to a new book, "The Three Trillion Dollar War," by Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and co-author Linda Bilmes. The authors estimate that by 2017, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will cost the nation between $1.7 trillion and $2.7 trillion....I'm not aware of any educated guess at how much it might cost if the occupation of Iraq were to last 100 years, as McCain has suggested....

It is unclear whether the recent increase in violence in Iraq is temporary or the beginning of a new and tragic cycle. It's hard to imagine a return to the level of carnage of a year ago, since by now many of Baghdad's neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed. But all of us -- even the presidential candidates -- had better pay attention.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/10/AR2008031002245.html?hpid=opinionsbox1