This is good news:
The Iraqi military announced today that it arrested five members of an al Qaeda cell that was seeking to manufacture chemical weapons, including sarin nerve gas, and plotting to conduct attacks within Iraq, Europe, and North America.
The Defense Ministry announced that it arrested the five members of the al Qaeda in Iraq cell and raided two factories in Baghdad that were used to research and manufacture the deadly chemical agents. The arrests were made with the help of undisclosed foreign intelligence services.
I assume the unnamed intelligence services included our CIA.
But as we strike al Qaeda, all of Iraq may be breaking down:
Al Qaeda in Iraq launched a concentrated wave of car-bomb and other attacks specifically against civilian Shi'a targets in and around Baghdad. Shi'a militias are mobilizing and have begun a round of sectarian killings facilitated by false checkpoints, a technique characteristic of the 2006-2007 period. Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki has taken a number of steps to demonstrate that he remains in control of the situation. The expansion of Shi'a militia activity, however, is likely to persuade many Iraqis that he is either not in control or is actively abetting the killings.
I wrote that until the Shia death squads return to the field that it wasn't a return to 2006-2007. But now that is happening, despite what I'd read (from the same sources) just days ago to the contrary.
Our failure to keep troops in Iraq to protect Iraqi politicians from Iranian pressure and to reassure Iraqi parties that politics is the way to resolve disputes could be coming back to bite us already.
President Obama may have hoped for a decent interval before "Bush's war" was lost, but the failure to decisively support rebels in Syria a year and a half ago has destabilized Iraq as Iraq bends to Iran's will to support Assad and as Iraqis take side in Syria's civil war. Had we pressed Assad when he was on the ropes, Iraq could have resisted Iran's pressure and avoided reigniting sectarian tensions.
And Hezbollah's role in Syria is dragging Lebanon into the fight, too.
The White House had best check their dictionary. I don't think "receding" means what they think it means.
And I don't think the CIA is enough to keep Iraq from dissolving into sectarian fighting. For a president who doesn't want to fight wars, President Obama sure does seem committed to losing as many as possible. If we have any smart diplomacy at all, I'd like to see some now, please.
