Bombing at Iraqi parliament kills 8

[nodular]

This is a big one. The stated purpose of the surge is to create a relatively quiet period that is supposed to allow a settlement of Iraq's political differences. Granted the idea sounds absurd. Iraq's political differences are fundamental and not likely to be resolved by a brief period of calm.

Still, it is a shock that an attack cannot be prevented in the parlaiment building itself---inside the Green Zone. Presumably, Iraqi pride would not let Americans run security for their parlaiment. Still, one would imagine that explosive detection devices could be installed at the entrances to the building and Iraqis trained to use them. Perhaps Americans did not want the Iraqis to get ahold of such devices on the premise that someone would lend it to a terrorist so it could be dissassembled and analyzed to help defeat other copies of the device in airports, etc.

Condi's reply seems to be overly fake calm to me. This attack is a loss of face and needs to be acknowleged as such. American forces are pushing into outer provinces and the Green Zone seems to be falling apart (two attacks since the surge started, I believe). Some resources will have to be pulled back to deal with this.

It constitutes a loss of momentum in the surge. If the damage is to be contained, there will have to first be a better official reaction from Americans. Bush may need to make a statement. Certainly, deep concern and sympathy must somehow be expressed.

Second, something has to be done about the Green Zone. Another major attack and the surge will really start sputtering. I would say we have to get the security right there very quickly to maintain any type of "face" in front of the Iraqi people.



Yahoo News


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070412/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

"Maj. Gen. William Caldwell told The Associated Press that eight people were killed in the attack. Iraqi officials said the bomber struck the cafeteria while several lawmakers were eating lunch. State television said at least 30 people were wounded.

"Security officials at parliament, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, said they believed the suicide bomber was a bodyguard of a Sunni member of parliament who was not among the dead. They would not name the member of parliament.

"The officials also said two satchel bombs were found inside the building near the dining hall. A U.S. military bomb squad was called and took the explosives away and detonated them without incident...

"'We know that there is a security problem in Baghdad,' added Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice, speaking at the State Department. 'This is still early in the process and I don't think anyone expected that there wouldn't be counter-efforts by terrorists to undermine the security presence.'"