Wednesday's terrorist savagery in Baghdad with more than 200 killed and scores maimed in a single brutal attack sets a new record in depravity. How Washington’s reaction could have been so upbeat was, therefore, extraordinary. The stupidly named US military “surge” is clearly not working. Shiite militias have merely left the streets for the moment. Al-Qaeda and Baathists remain fully operational. The inability of the Iraqi police and army and their Coalition allies to halt the slaughter of Shiites simply proves the claims of Shiite extremists like Moqtada Sadr that only their own militias can protect and avenge them.
The Iraqi government assertion that the anti-insurgent campaign is “intelligence-led” seems laughable. Even the highly sophisticated signals-intelligence effort mounted by the Americans has proved incapable of unmasking new terror cells. There has been no major intelligence success since the slaying of Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi in an air strike ten months ago. Claims that the new local head of Al-Qaeda, Abu Ayyub Al-Masri, has been killed have been quietly abandoned. Al-Qaeda and other Sunni insurgents appear able to operate with impunity. Nor is there any more talk these days of deals being brokered with Sunni insurgents.
Despite the Al-Maliki government’s insistence that order is slowly being restored, the evidence is that police forces are deeply infiltrated by militias. Officers are helping the gangs attack their own colleagues. When the Americans (along with their British enablers) finally cut and run, the future looks bleak for the genuine enforcement of law and order on behalf of all Iraqis, regardless of background. Sunnis in particular have reason to be particularly concerned. The whole purpose of the Al-Qaeda and Baathist insurgency is to set the Shiite community at the throats of Sunnis. This will guarantee the polarization of Sunni support behind the insurgents. It will also very probably ensure the most horrific inter-communal bloodletting. Perhaps in recognition of this, a group of leading Sunni clerics has spoken out against the shedding of innocent Iraqi blood by Sunni insurgents. Declaring that Muslim should not be killing Muslim, a new group of Sunni scholars headed by the respected Sheikh Abdul Malik Al-Saadi is seeking to curb the indiscriminate bombings. This initiative is long overdue and might have been better had it coincided with the same call last July of Shiite spiritual leader Ayatollah Ali Al-Sistani. But perhaps it is only now, when the Sunni community sees itself looking into the abyss that this call may be heard seriously.
Will the insurgents now listen both to the religious leaders and the entreaties of their community to end the violence? More importantly, how will they handle the Al- Qaeda bigots operating alongside them, for whom murder and mayhem are a way of life? The only thing that unites the men of violence in both communities is hatred of the US occupation. It is poor cement for holding Iraq together.
