There is reality and then there is the words spoken by the president. His triumphant announcement yesterday about the death of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi echoed triumphant announcements of the past: “mission accomplished” and his words following the capture of Saddam Hussein.
The reality is far darker, as The New York Times points out:
But as Americans discovered earlier, after Saddam Hussein’s two sons were killed and the Iraqi dictator himself was arrested, it will take far more than the elimination of a handful of iconic leaders to stem the tide of the Iraqi insurgency and reverse the country’s alarming slide into civil war.
It will take, most of all, the consolidation of an effective Iraqi government of national unity that can win the loyalty of the overwhelming majority of Iraq’s Shiites, Kurds and Sunni Arabs by respecting their religious and ethnic diversity, protecting their personal security and assuring them the essentials of modern life. These include, at a minimum, reliable electricity, decent hospitals and schools, and a functioning economy that generates adequate employment.
Perhaps the paper is correct in saying that some small steps are being taken — “with the parliamentary confirmation of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s remaining cabinet members” and the hopes that they “will now take on the critical and daunting job of reforming Iraq’s unreliable national army and out-of-control police forces.”
But, as we watch Iraq on the precipice of civil war, we need to remember that the reality is not an end to the insurgency with Zarqawi’s death, but an uncertain future that is likely to be filled with considerable bloodshed.
The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
Hank Kalet 