Three articles show the effects of Bush's Iraq policy

[ProSense]

Voilence and death:

Violence in Iraq kills 56

By Mariam Karouny and David Clarke

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two suicide car bombs killed 22 people in northern Iraq on Tuesday in attacks targeting a police chief and a tribal leader working with U.S. forces, part of an upsurge in violence that killed 56 across the country.

In Baghdad, foreign security guards escorting a convoy of four vehicles through the city centre killed two women when they opened fire on a car, the government said.

The spate of attacks across Iraq, which also wounded nearly 120 people, marked one of the bloodiest days during the holy Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.

Al Qaeda in Iraq has vowed to target officials and Sunni Arab tribal leaders who have joined with the U.S. military to combat the Sunni Islamist group, pledging to ramp up attacks in Ramadan, which is expected to finish on the weekend.

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Instability:

Turkey ready to send troops into Iraq

By Hidir Goktas and Gareth Jones

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's prime minister gave the green light on Tuesday for possible military action in northern Iraq to confront Kurdish rebels there, drawing a warning from the United States, which fears wider regional instability.

The ruling AK Party said it would request, as soon as possible, parliament's authorization for a major incursion into the mainly Kurdish region, Turkish private broadcasters CNN Turk and NTV reported.

Washington urged Ankara to hold off on unilateral action, fearing it could destabilize Iraq's most peaceful area and potentially the wider region.

Erdogan is under pressure from Turkey's powerful armed forces and the opposition to take action against rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after they shot dead 13 soldiers on Sunday near the Iraqi border.

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Iran empowered:

Has the U.S. Ceded Southern Iraq?

Monday, Oct. 08, 2007 By MARK KUKIS/BAGHDAD

U.S. military officers in Iraq often wonder about the possible presence of Iranian operatives in cities south of Baghdad like Karbala and Najaf, two key strongholds for Shi'ite militias thought to have links to Tehran. Many soldiers believe those two cities, home to more than 1.5 million people altogether, are where Shi'ite militants gather, train and arm themselves with help from Iran for attacks against U.S. forces farther north. Some intelligence even suggests that Iran's elite military force, the Revolutionary Guard, has opened training camps in the area for Iraqi guerrillas. But getting a clear picture of the happenings there and in other cities in that region is hard for one simple reason: U.S. troops don't go there anymore.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week announced his plan to reduce the British force around the southern city of Basra from 5,000 to 2,500 by next spring. Drawing less attention, however, is the extent to which American forces have quietly withdrawn from the rest of southern Iraq. By so doing, the U.S. is ceding huge swaths of territory to shaky provincial governments that have to face increasingly powerful Shi'ite militias very much alone.

Small contingents of U.S. soldiers enter Karbala and Najaf only for brief visits with local officials these days, and much of the rest of southern Iraq has no American troops at all. Focused on saving Baghdad, U.S. forces keep up a regular presence with patrols and combat outposts chiefly around the southern reaches of the capital. Meanwhile, the drawdown of British forces in Basra — where the troops have relocated to the local airport outside the city — leaves yet another southern city, with a population of roughly 2 million, unattended by the U.S.-led coalition. That means virtually all of the vast, populous and oil-rich territory stretching from Karbala to Basra is up for grabs.

Since 2004, American soldiers have treaded lightly in southern Iraq, even though all the territory north of Basra has been ostensibly the responsibility of U.S. forces. An uneasy truce prevailed in the area between U.S. forces and the Mahdi Army, the militia headed by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Both sides seemed eager to avoid a repeat of the open clashes that erupted in 2004 in Karbala and Najaf, where Sadr's militia holds sway. So U.S. troops generally stayed away.

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