Mid-East Meets Midwest

Iraqi officials are questioning 11 security officers about security failures that resulted in the bloodiest day in Baghdad in more than a year.

The Iraqi government raised the death toll from Wednesday’s Baghdad bomb and mortar attacks to at least 100. More than 500 other people were wounded.

An Iraqi army spokesman said there are regulations instructing security officers to prohibit trucks of the sort that exploded Wednesday from approaching government ministries.

But even the tightened security Thursday failed to prevent another bombing in the Iraqi capital.  Officials say a bomb strapped to a bicycle killed two people and wounded at least 10 in central Baghdad.

After Wednesday’s bloodshed, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki vowed an immediate re-evaluation of the government’s security methods. Read more…

Violence interrupted the celebrations of National Sovereignty Day (photo courtesy of Iraq Solidarity Campaign)

One month ago today, celebrations filled the streets of Baghdad as Iraqis marked “National Sovereignty Day,” commemorating the official withdrawal of American troops from Iraqi cities.  But in Kirkuk, just 150 miles north of Baghdad, the cheers and high spirits were replaced with screams and panic when a car bomb exploded in a crowded market, killing at least 34 people.

This incident caused me to take a step back and ask, ‘Is Iraq ready to stand on its own two feet?’

Over the last six years American troops, advisers and diplomats have been working to establish a stable Iraq, combating violence, training Iraqi soldiers and police, and planting the seeds of democracy for the first time in Iraq’s history.  What more can the United States do to help this war torn nation?

Perhaps the answer is to stop helping. Read more…