March 28, 2005

Iraq: 60 Attacks a Day and More Foreign Jihadis

Since we haven't put up any links to the current situation in Iraq just recently I thought I'd link to Juan Cole's daily review of news in the region. There are links to many more stories embedded in this post.

Cole starts out with comments on a story being run by ABC.

US Generals revealed on Sunday that a) guerrillas in Iraq are able to keep the number of attacks at about 60 a day and b) that the proportion of fighters that is foreign jihadis has increased somewhat in the past few months. (The proportion seems to have been about 5 percent through last fall). The CIA is worried that the jihadis are getting training in Iraq that will allow them to contribute to destabilizing the Middle East and might impel them to attack the United States, as the veterans of the Reagan Afghanistan Jihad did. By the way, if there are 60 attacks a day, why do I only read about 7 or 8 of them?

And of course Iraq continues not to have a functioning government almost 2 whole months after elections there. This would seem to be a rather problematic sign. Not just in terms of the ability of the government to be able to perform basic tasks, but also for what it foreshadows about the process of constitution writing. The Assembly is supposed to come up with a new national constitution by August.

Posted by armand at March 28, 2005 09:55 AM | TrackBack | Posted to International Affairs


Comments

Why aren't you reading about them? That would leave no space for Michael Jackson! Seriously though, when things like this happen all day every day, the significance required to make the news ratchets up. I've talked to a few people who have been in Iraq in the last couple of years (anecdotal, I know) and have heard from all of them about how they would hear a "boom," think, "yup, something else just got blown up" and then shrug and go on about their business. Only the big things get reported.

Posted by: binky at March 28, 2005 05:27 PM | PERMALINK
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