As political factions continue to haggle over forming Iraq’s new government, more than 100 Iraqis were killed and hundreds injured in a weeklong wave of violence. The attacks, which bear the earmarks of the Sunni insurgency group al Qaida in Iraq, stirred fears that Iraq was once again plunging into sectarian warfare. In one assault, insurgents wearing military uniforms rounded up members of the anti-insurgent Sunni Awakening and executed them and their families, killing 24. Car bombs targeted Baghdad apartment buildings and diplomatic facilities, including the Iranian Embassy.
The attacks come a month after Iraqi parliamentary elections, which gave opposition leader Ayad Allawi a narrow plurality, but left no bloc with a clear parliamentary majority. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has challenged the results. Allawi said al-Maliki’s intransigence has created a “power vacuum” that insurgents are exploiting. “Democracy is being raped in Iraq,” Allawi said.
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The mounting lawlessness is President Obama’s gift to Iraq, said Frank Gaffney in The Washington Times. By announcing that the drawdown of American combat forces would be complete by August, Obama essentially sent the message that “those determined to use violence to destabilize the country, foment sectarian strife, and shape Iraq’s destiny can do so with impunity.”
Surveying today’s Iraq, said Andrew Sullivan in TheAtlantic.com, Americans have every right to wonder “if this is what they gave $1 trillion and thousands of lives and tens of thousands of casualties for.” Even if all-out warfare is averted, it seems we’ll be lucky to end up with “some kind of ramshackle, chaotic, and weak state, more sympathetic to Iran than Saddam would ever have been.”
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Putin’s threat to fracture Ukrainefeature Fears that Russia was building a pretext for an invasion of eastern Ukraine grew, as pro-Kremlin protesters occupied government buildings in three cities.
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Curbing NSA surveillance
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Downsizing the military
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Putin ratchets up pressure on Ukraine
feature Russian President Vladimir Putin put 150,000 troops at the Ukraine border on high alert and cut off $15 billion in financial aid.
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Ukraine on the brink of civil war
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Ukraine at the breaking point
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Dim prospects for Syrian talks
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The fight over jobless benefits
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