Salon har en ny artikel av Juan Cole som handlar om det senaste våldsutbrottet i Irak efter bombningen av mosken i Samarra. Som vanligt levererar Cole en exemplariskt översiktlig analys av de olika aktörernas ståndpunkter.
”The catastrophe in Iraq, the scope of which is now apparent to even the most disengaged observer, and his mishandling of the Dubai port issue have sent President George W. Bush’s public approval ratings to the lowest of his presidency. According to a Reuters poll, only 34 percent of Americans believe he is doing a good job overall. Only 30 percent, less than a third, think he is managing the Iraq situation well. A remarkable 72 percent of American troops polled in Iraq think the U.S. should leave Iraq within the next year. Nor is there any hope for Bush on the horizon. The bloody events in Iraq have undermined American authority in that country and in the Middle East more generally. The Shiite clergy of Iran and Iraq have bolstered their own authority at Bush’s expense. This development has already severely limited his scope of action in Iran, and will doubtless have many other negative consequences in the months and years ahead.”
En annan läsvärd postning kommer från Riverbends ”Baghdad Burning” från den 27 februari, där hon berättar om rädslan och oron som sprider sig i Bagdad just nu och hur hon och hennes grannar försöker förbättra säkerheten.
”I’m reading, and hearing, about the possibility of civil war. The possibility. Yet I’m sitting here wondering if this is actually what civil war is like. Has it become a reality? Will we look back at this in one year, two years… ten… and say, “It began in February 2006…”? It is like a nightmare in that you don’t realise it’s a nightmare while having it- only later, after waking up with your heart throbbing, and your eyes searching the dark for a pinpoint of light, do you realise it was a nightmare…”