Iraq: A Never Ending Subject

Only Seventy-Eight troops were killed this month and the administration is trying to spin this as a positive sign. But, to put things in perspective - at the beginning of the Iraq war in 2003 an average of 48.6 soldiers were dying per month. In 2007 an average of 93 soldiers are dying per month. The Iraq body count continues to rise, 74,435 Iraqi civilians have perished as a result of this war. That is twenty-five 9/11's for the people of Iraq, and I remind you a very conservative number.

But, the cost of Iraq is surely rising. The cost could reach $40 Billion

More importantly, however two stories today report a maelstrom in the region. On a particularly blood day in Iraq the Sunni Bloc pulled form the government. As the explosions rumbled across the city, ministers from the Concord Front, Iraq's largest Sunni bloc, resigned from the ruling coalition and effectively ended its claim to be a government of national unity.

Even more troublesome is the the Kurdish city of Kirkuk. Kurdish leaders are warning of a coming civil war. The leader of Iraq's Kurdish region warned Tuesday of a "real civil war" if the government in Baghdad does not allow a referendum on the future of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Nationally, the dispute over Kirkuk pits the Kurds, who want to annex the city to their largely autonomous region in northern Iraq, against the country's Arab majority and its small minority of Turks, known locally as Turkmen.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, has called Kirkuk "our Jerusalem." Like Jerusalem, it has a patchwork of rival sects, there are competing claims over who should control it, and it's important to the nation's future. The area around the city accounts for about 40% of Iraq's oil production. A clause in the Iraqi constitution calls for a referendum on Kirkuk to decide its future status in Iraq. If no referendum, then Barzani the Kurdish leader is calling for civil war.

Are we really supposed to believe Iraq is going well? Sure, soldier deaths are down this month, but we are not stupid. Meanwhile, Adm. Michael G. Mullen, President Bush's nominee to head the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told a Senate panel yesterday that the war in Iraq is taking a heavy toll on the U.S. military, warning that American forces are "not unbreakable" and stressing the need to "plan for an eventual drawdown" of troops.

I guess Bush will have to pull his nomination.