Bad week in Iraq

In an analytic piece, UPI's Martin Sieff takes on some of the "bad news" from Iraq over the past week. This includes announcements that troop withdrawals are highly unlikely, there were nearly more car bombings in the past month than in all of 2004, and, perhaps most disturbing for US, diplomatic moves are drawing Iran and Iraq closer together.

Sieff adds that these developments are

likely to come as a cold shock to the U.S. public and to hawkish media commentators who had assumed national parliamentary elections in Iraq Jan. 30, the election of a national assembly and the eventual creation of a coalition government from the Shiite and Kurdish parties who dominate it would isolate the Sunni Muslim insurgency in central Iraq and undermine its support.

Instead, the opposite has happened. The wave of terror bombings that have killed more than 400 people over the past month indicates the insurgents remain more formidable and implacable than ever, and there is no significant sign of their support eroding in the Sunni community.

Credit to Sieff, because he was one of the few analysts to dare suggest this might happen following the January 30 elections. Most were too busy fawning at the fulfillment of Bush's "bold" vision and lamenting all the "good news" that, shucks, just wasn't being reported in the "MSM."