Massacre and mayhem (Iraq)--Three US soldiers were killed in the city yesterday.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2061750,00.html

Massacre and mayhem


Leader
Friday April 20, 2007
The Guardian

It has been a disastrous week for Iraq, and for the country's prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki. On Monday six ministerial supporters of the shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr walked out of his cabinet over Mr Maliki's refusal to set a timetable for the withdrawal of US-led foreign troops. On Wednesday a salvo of bombs in Baghdad killed some 200 people, hitting the Shia community in its underbelly and bringing inevitable calls for revenge. Yesterday the US defence secretary, Robert Gates, warned Mr Maliki that US patience was running thin, and that its commitment to a military build-up was not open-ended. Staying the course, the mantra that George Bush and Tony Blair have used since the troop surge was announced in January, may not last much longer.

Only three of the five extra brigades Mr Bush announced that he was sending to Baghdad have arrived, and evidence of their ability to affect the security situation is mixed. Three US soldiers were killed in the city yesterday. There have been fewer murders by Shia militias, but the security clampdown in the capital has only shifted Sunni insurgents beyond Baghdad. Mr Maliki's spokesmen pleaded yesterday for more time for his troops to fan out, saying that new areas too would be "cleansed" of insurgents. According to Iraq Body Count, regarded as cautious witnesses, 73 civilians have died on average each day over the past year.

If events are slipping out of Mr Maliki's control, they are even less under Mr Bush's. On Wednesday he met congressional leaders for the first time in weeks. It was an encounter which failed to bridge the gap between executive and legislature. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate have set dates for the withdrawal of US troops. One says September 1 2008 at the latest, and the other calls for phased redeployment to begin in four months' time and sets a pull-out date of March 31 next year. Mr Bush has said that he will veto any spending bill that sets a date for withdrawal. But even he must now realise that he is running out of political road.

With the start of presidential campaigning in the autumn and support for pro-war candidates such as Hillary Clinton and John McCain slipping against clearly anti-war rivals, Mr Bush could lose control of Iraq policy to the Senate. Mr Bush bridled when Senator Harry Reid, the Democrat majority leader, said the president should not continue with the war simply to protect his legacy. But the reality is that what US troops are doing now is too late. General David Petraeus, the senior commander in Iraq and Mr Bush's last hope, may say otherwise when he comes to Washington next week to plead with increasingly sceptical senators.