The Baghdad bomb shows Bush’s planned ‘surge’ is in deep trouble, says robert fox |
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The bomb attack on the Iraqi parliament deep in Baghdad's protected Green Zone is notice, if any were needed, that the American 'surge' security plan is in trouble.
The attack killed at least two Iraqi MPs, one from the conciliatory National Dialogue. Several more were injured. The attack was one of three on various parts of the inner core of the capital - one killed ten people on a bridge over the Tigris.
The facts are stark enough, but the emotional message is starker. This shows that the new security partnership between American troops and the Iraqi army and police isn't working - or rather isn't working nearly fast enough. The partnership is the basis of the new 'surge' plan by which General David Petraeus is to establish enough 'security space' for the Iraqi authorities under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki to grow to strength. |
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| By the end of May the Americans will have 175,000 troops in Iraq, but they cannot do the job on their own |
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This would allow the US forces to pull back around the middle of next year.
Now it is clear that the Iraqis cannot build up enough government and security capacity to stand a chance of allowing for a peaceful draw-down of the US and its allies soon. By the end of May the Americans will have 175,000 troops on the ground, but they cannot do the job on their own.
And the clock is ticking as the huge demonstration of nationalist Shias in Najaf in the past few days showed. This was Moqtada al-Sadr playing George Bush at his own game. If Bush wanted to give Iraq a new democracy, Iraqi Shias can give their own show of democracy against the US presence: it's called the democracy of the street, and protest, the democracy of mass civil disobedience of Mahatma Gandhi.
For Bush the 'surge' was the last idea he had in the locker. Moqtada and the other militants gives every sign they've got plenty more tricks up their capacious sleeves. 
FIRST POSTED APRIL 12, 2007
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