Iraq Deaths Today Are Horrific

04/18/2007

Paul Munnis


It appears that the lack of a deadline for Iraqi withdrawal is killing more Iraqi’s than if there was one. Dick Chaney seems to be wrong once again. He had said that Democrats by giving a deadline are endangering our troops.

In effect Democrats have been announcing the withdrawal deadline date (August 2008) for months now and it has had no negative effect – just the opposite -- al Sadr is demanding immediate U.S. withdrawal and the failure to provide it is increasing the Iraqi body count. It is putting pressure on the Iraqi government to stand and deliver. They are hard put to do so.

Today’s death toll of at least 188 Iraqis is a large number. If this keeps up over a number of weeks then the Bush “surge” plan will have to be considered a failure. The purpose of the “surge” was to make Iraq safer for the inhabitants of Baghdad.

The arrest of an Iraqi Army officer responsible for security in the area of the largest bombing incident (88 killed) adds to a sense of hopelessness. There are still questions -- for example is he a fifth columnist? Is he incompetent to hold his post? Why aren’t his troops providing needed security? Can the Iraqi Army be trusted to do anything?

The meeting at the White House between the heads of Congress and the Bush Administration was a stalemate. Contrary to the forecast by Dick Chaney, Democrats did not fold on an Iraq deadline. In a press conference following the event both Reid and Pelosi made it clear that Congress is representing the will of the people in their Districts. They are giving proper representation in Congress. They say it is Mr. Bush who is ignoring the will of the people.

They also insist that there is more support for the troops in the Military Spending Bill than what Mr. Bush had asked for. They say that if he vetoes the Bill then the loss of troop support will be Mr. Bush’s doing.

Meantime the Iraqi government is continuing to grow weaker each day. If the Army isn’t loyal then there is no resource to win the peace. A political accommodation is the only way out and there is nothing that we know about that is going positive for the present Iraqi government.

Soon the Gonzales examination will commence and that looks like a major showdown with the Bush Administration is coming.

Problems with Paul Wolfowitz, the head of the World Bank, are continuing but the news has been overshadowed by the reports from Virginia Tech where a madman has performed the largest mass killing outside of a war in U.S. history.