Iraq Meltdown

As omnipresent as the Foley scandal is in the media, and as destructive as it looks to be to the Bushite Republicans, it may yet be eclipsed by a total meltdown in Iraq before election day.

That's how rapidly things seem to be falling apart there, based on facts being reported, the tenor of on the ground reporting from Iraq, and how it smells from this distance.

The ever-escalating (and underreported) violence has suddenly jumped again. Against the U.S., an unprecedented number-- 13 soldiers-- have been killed in three days. At least 24 soldiers and Marines have been killed since Saturday, and planted bomb explosions are at an all time high.

This may be partly due to Americans getting back into the streets (though not, CNN reports, in a really massive way) to try to blunt the increasing violence of insurgency, which some analysts say is more clearly becoming a civil war situation of Shia and Sunni.

Maybe it's because I haven't been watching cable news, but reporters now in Iraq aired by CNN have been devastatingly direct on how bad the situation is, how much worse than the Bush people say or even military officials admit, and how much terrorists and Iran are benefitting from the chaos. I don't remember reporting like this at any point during the Vietnam war.

The effect of rampant violence and growing panic on the central government is the most proximate worry. It is a clearly ineffective government, and the Iraqi forces are more obviously compromised, harboring militias for various factions. Yesterday an entire Iraqi police brigade of 800 to 1200 officers (the Post estimates) was "pulled out of service and placed under investigation for alleged complicity with death squads.

Condi Rice's surprise visit underscores the concern: if the even symbolic central government falls, it will be impossible for the Bush administration to conceal the reality of full fledged civil war in Iraq, and the very dangerous position of U.S. troops and civilians in Iraq.