But on Monday, after a double truck bombing tore through a Shiite village in northern Iraq and a string of nine blasts hit Baghdad, at least 48 people were dead and more than 250 were injured.

Douglas Ollivant, who served two tours in Iraq and was the director for Iraq policy at the National Security Council, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the timetable for U.S. withdrawal and consider if the focus on Afghanistan is premature.

But then there are days like Friday, when a series of bombs exploded near five Shiite mosques in Baghdad, killing at least 29 people and shattering the perception, at least for now, that Iraq is a much safer place than it used to be.

Michael Wahid Hanna, a fellow at the Century Foundation, joins Martin Savidge to discuss the attacks and U.S. troop withdrawals.

Also on Wednesday, two bombs exploded in a Baghdad market, killing at least five people and wounding dozens. It was the second day of bombings in what appears to be a growing campaign of religious and ethnic violence between Shi’ite and Sunni Muslims.

Joost Hiltermann of the International Crisis Group joins Martin Savidge to discuss relations between the U.S. and Iraq and the security situation.

Already, insurgents seem to be testing Iraq’s ability to maintain security, with a series of deadly bombings that has killed almost 200 people in recent days. The Pentagon has downplayed the recent spike in violence in Iraq.

On Wednesday, a bomb attached to a motorcycle killed 78 people at a market in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, which is already under Iraqi control.

Michael Wahid Hanna, a fellow at the Century Foundation, joins Martin Savidge to discuss whether Iraqi security forces are ready to take control and what role U.S. forces will continue to play in Iraq after the pullout from cities.

At least 28 people were killed and dozens were injured in the attack.

John Nagl, the president of the Center for a New American Security and a former army officer who served in Iraq, joins Martin Savidge to discuss preparation for the troop pullout and a national referendum coming up in July on the Iraqi-American security agreement.

Tony Blair in 2008.

It’s two years since Tony Blair left 10 Downing Street for good, but he hasn’t been able to win the praise and credit he yearns for after a decade of accomplishments as the Labor Party’s longest-serving prime minister, from British economic growth to peace in Northern Ireland. 

Blair and his friends have been arguing that the former prime minister should be better treated. One thing gets in the way: His friendship with George W. Bush and his decision to join the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The latest: The London Telegraph reports that Blair’s decision-making in office — including the decision to invade Iraq — was based on his religious beliefs. It’s reminiscent of Bush’s description of the war on terrorism as a “crusade.”

The Telegraph quotes a book, “We Don’t Do God,” by John Burton, Blair’s political associate and sometimes mentor. The book says Blair played down his religious fervor while in office, but it was always at the forefront:

Tony’s Christian faith is part of him, down to his cotton socks. He believed strongly at the time, that intervention in Kosovo, Sierra Leone — Iraq too — was all part of the Christian battle; good should triumph over evil, making lives better.

He applied that same principle in everything he did — from establishing the Social Exclusion Unit to ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, and ridding Iraq of the evils of Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Bush’s religion-dominated worldview has also been in the news recently. GQ reported this month that former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld mixed memos to Bush on Iraq with quotations from the Scriptures.

This week, Clive Hamilton, a visiting professor at Yale University, reports on a new book about former French President Jacques Chirac, written by journalist Jean Claude Maurice. The book says Bush spoke of Satan and the need to cleanse the world to prepare for Armageddon.

Chirac is said to have been stupefied and disturbed by Bush’s invocation of Biblical prophesy to justify the war in Iraq and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs.”

Prediction, not prophesy — Blair and Bush will long be the focus of armchair psychoanalysis: Bush for why he did what he did, Blair for why he didn’t know better.

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user World Economic Forum under a Creative Commons license.

Iraq’s massive oil reserves, the third largest in the world, are well-known. But small businesses represent about 90 percent of the country’s businesses.

More than a quarter of young men in Iraq are jobless, according to the United Nations, and this high rate of unemployment and lack of prospects can often contribute to instability. Some 450,000 people will enter the workforce in Iraq this year — but only a fraction of them will find jobs.

The country is also not immune from the global financial crisis, and dropping oil prices represent a threat in a country where oil accounts for about 95 percent of the government’s revenue.

As the new administration in Washington prepares to scale down the U.S. presence in Iraq and the world’s focus shifts to Afghanistan, Worldfocus.org’s weekly radio show explored the state of the Iraqi economy, from small shoe shops to large oil corporations.

Worldfocus anchor Martin Savidge hosted a panel of guests:

Ali Alnaemi was born in Baghdad, Iraq. He worked as a freelance reporter for the BBC and Voices of America in Iraq, and from 2004-2007 worked as the newsroom manager for The New York Times’ bureau in Baghdad. Ali’s main interests include politics and issues that affect minorities in the U.S.

Eric Davis is a professor of political science at Rutgers University and past director of the University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies. His research has included the study of the relationship between state power and historical memory in modern Iraq and the impact of oil wealth on the state and culture in Arab oil-producing countries. His publications include “Memories of State: Politics, History and Collective Identity in Modern Iraq,” among others.

Robert Looney is a professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School. He has been an adviser to the governments of Iran, Saudi Arabia, Panama, Jamaica and Mexico. Robert’s regional interests are government budgets, defense expenditures and economic planning in the Middle East/South Asian region. He has written twenty books on various aspects of economic development, including “Economic Development in Saudi Arabia: Consequences of the Oil Price Decline.”

Credits:
Host: Martin Savidge
Producers: Lisa Biagiotti, Katie Combs, Nicole E. Foster and Bijan Rezvani

Recent attacks have raised new concerns about the abilities of Iraq’s security forces.

On Friday, for a second day in a row, the Iraqi capital of Baghdad was hit with a devastating bombing attack.

At least 60 people were killed when two suicide bombers blew up explosive belts within minutes of each other near the city’s most important Shiite shrine.

These latest attacks have raised new concerns about the abilities of Iraq’s security forces. In Washington on Friday, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, General David Petraeus, cautioned that progress in Iraq continues to be fragile and reversible.

Blogger “Mhmd” in Baghdad reacts to a nearby bombing:

i feel un-euphoric.

i’m at friends house on the pc while he’s answering about a million phone calls from family members.

There’s been multiple explosions and the victims were people. Real living smiling crying people. I’m speechless. I just have no idea what to say or do.

Blogger “Layla Anwar” writes from Iraq, saying that she has grown numb:

These days, when there are news of explosions going on in Baghdad and its vicinity, like daily, I avoid reading the full story. I just read the headlines.

I don’t want to know anymore.

I don’t want to know the number of dead, I don’t want to know the exact location, I don’t want to know how it happened, who did it, what time, the names, age and sex of the victims…I just don’t want to know anymore.

I say to myself, if it is anyone I am related to, I will find out about it…sooner than later. Right now, I just don’t want to know because — am saturated.

I am saturated with deaths, killings, explosions, people disappearing, people in detention, people in need, people in distress, people losing their homes — am saturated with numbers, with names of places, with stories and memories that have developed a life of their own now - settling themselves in my mind, in my waking and sleeping hours, like unwanted tenants who have appropriated your private space, like armed gangs who have taken over your home…and there is absolutely nothing you can do to evict them.

The “Eye Raki” blog writes that overall conditions are improving in Iraq:

Despite the recent lapse in security, things for the most part have been steadily improving. If only the terrorists knew that with every car bomb and suicide attack their chance of a future in Iraq goes further and further down the drain. I mean all the terrorists. The Ba’athists still dreaming of a united Arab nation, the Arabs still dreaming of a Caliphate, and the Shia militia still dreaming of their own country. The recent attacks in Baghdad have not been different from previous attacks. Still cold-blooded, still indiscriminate, still cowardice.

Marc Lynch at Foreign Policy’s blog explores the significance of the rise in attacks:

I don’t think that we’re seeing the “great unravelling” quite yet, nor that we’re yet seeing a return to higher levels of violence, insurgency and civil war.   But the increased violence and the growing chorus of complaints about the failures of political accommodation should be a cautionary note to the Iraqi government and to the major political players that time is running out to make the crucial political power-sharing agreements necessary before American troop withdrawals pick up their pace.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user jamesdale10 under a Creative Commons license.

General David Petraeus.

In Iraq on Wednesday, another bombing threatened security and raised new fears of violence between Sunnis and Shiites once American troops withdraw. Worldfocus editorial consultant Peter Eisner, the former deputy foreign editor of the Washington Post, discusses how the 2007 surge of American troops has fared.

Anyone bereft of a basic filing system, or who perhaps doesn’t take time to face reality in the form of Google searches, might just want to focus on the words of General David Petraeus exactly one year ago before the Senate Armed Service Committee.

Back then, Democrats found difficulty in criticizing the surge. Meanwhile, Senator John McCain was proud to declare that he was at the forefront of the idea to send 20,000 U.S. troops to Iraq.

Despite the resident wisdom during the presidential campaign that promoted the success of then-President George W. Bush’s vaunted surge, Petraeus was closer to the ground, saying “We haven’t turned any corners. We haven’t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel“ and warning that “Countless sectarian fault lines still exist in Baghdad and elsewhere.”

A year later, there seems to be surprise in the air every time a particularly bloody bomb attack is staged in Baghdad or other Iraqi environs. Petraeus wasn’t running for office and he was quick to mention that any U.S. successes in Iraq might be “fragile and reversible.”

The surge was a quick fix to be sure, and there are all sorts of statistics to show a decrease in violence. But in the long term, the battle lines are still drawn. Rival Sunni and Shiite factions keep their powder dry, but are still geared up for the coming battle whenever U.S. troops pull back. That’s mixed in with the baggage encased in a dilemma, one of many inherited by President Obama.

My friend and former colleague at the Washington Post, Thomas E. Ricks, describes the dilemma in his book, The Gamble, focusing on Petraeus and the surge. Commenting separately on the book, he has written that one basic problem is to understand what is meant by saying the surge “worked.”

“Yes, it did, in that it improved security. But it was meant to do more than that. It was supposed to create a breathing space in which Iraqi political leaders could move forward. In fact, as General Odierno [General Raymond T. Odierno, Petraeus’ successor as U.S. commander in Iraq] says in the book, some used the elbow room to move backward. The bottom line is that none of the basic problems facing Iraq have been addressed–the relationship between Shia, Sunni and Kurds, or who leads the Shias, or the status of the disputed city of Kirkuk, or the sharing of oil revenue.”

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Jon-Phillip Sheridan under a Creative Commons license.

Bernard Haykel, a professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University, speaks with Daljit Dhaliwal about what will happen in Iraq after U.S. withdrawal and how the Iraqi government has dealt with Sunni-Shiite tensions.

Iraqi blogger “Salam Pax” writes about tensions between Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods:

My aunts and uncles, four Shia families, and us we haven’t dared go back to our homes in the west of Baghdad, now declared Sunni. The first time we went to visit since 2005 was last month and it was depressing. So few of the old neighbours are still there and it feels so much less vibrant than the inner Baghdad neighbourhoods.

[…]Two years after the first walls went up the sectarian division of Baghdad is fact. People sold their houses in areas they can’t live in anymore and tried to buy houses in areas safer for them. The important word here is tried. This shuffling of demographic cards totally distorted the prices of property. Many were forced to sell cheap, especially if they were living in Sunni areas. Those who don’t want to sell are left with nothing.

Blogger “Laith” at the “Inside Iraq” blog describes the scene after a car bomb detonated at a market in northeast Baghdad in late March:

The blast killed at least 16 people and wounded some 45. The death toll likely rose today. I walked slowly down the street which was, until the explosion a lively street filled with men, women and children. I saw some of them but they were still under the effect of the explosion. Their faces tell the story of ongoing pain and suffering of Iraqis.

[...]Fruit and vegetables covered with the blood of the merchants and customers spread everywhere. the fruit are stained with the blood of innocents. Three different flip flops belonged to three people who are probably dead now. One is clearly for a young lady.  The push cart which is used to carry fruit and vegetable carried tens of wounded people. Its the most popular ambulance in cases like these. It is handy and can carry more than one person. This cart will carry fruit and vegetable again soon. Iraqi blood spilt on the ground has become part of our life.

Young student blogger “Violet“ in Mosul describes a bombing in early March:

the explosion occur yesterday.. they happen every day, since i was born .. i was born in the war and my ears used to hear explosions and my eyes feel nothing when see dead people!!!

The floor- as I remember flew from its place … the windows went outside their sites  and then returned again!!!

U.S. troops in Zabol province, Afghanistan.

As the threat from Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents increases in Afghanistan, the United States wants to double the size of the Afghan security forces — the army and the police. See more about the plan, which is awaiting President Obama’s approval: U.S. plans to upsurge soldiers and police in Afghanistan.

Worldfocus editorial consultant Peter Eisner, the former deputy foreign editor of the Washington Post, discusses reviewing policies in Iraq before committing to a new war strategy in Afghanistan.

Throughout the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama hammered away at the failure of George W. Bush for having engaged the wrong enemy when he launched the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It is too early to say how he will deal with what he considered the real fight in Afghanistan.

Sometimes overlooked is the policy review initiated by General David Petraeus even before President Obama took office. Petraeus called together dozens of intelligence experts and others to come up with a plan. These analysts, along with Petraeus and the president himself, are well aware of the old saying about Afghanistan — it is “the burial ground of empires.”

So while the president plans to send 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan, we still haven’t heard the results of the policy review. It would be hard to think that President Obama would commit hundreds of thousands of combat troops to the fight, risking a quagmire worse than Iraq, even Vietnam.

But we may be hearing early signs of a policy, especially in the words of Vice President Joe Biden. He implied last week that the administration is looking for ways to win over the hearts and minds (and the pocketbooks) of people drawn to the Taliban cause.

At a news conference at NATO headquarters in Brussels last week, Biden said the United States has learned in Iraq to promote progress by working with local governments, and not through battlefield victories.

Biden said “There’s only one way, and that is to engage — engage in the process, looking for pragmatic solutions to accomplishing what our goal is; that is an Afghanistan that is, at minimum goal, is not a haven for terror and is able to sustain itself on its own and provide its own security.”

- Peter Eisner

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Army.mil under a Creative Commons license.

Soldiers gather for a briefing in Estonia’s snowy woods. Photo: Sally Garner

Producer Sally Garner is reporting from Estonia and writes from a military base about the newly-independent country’s contribution to the war in Afghanistan.

This newly-independent former Soviet Republic takes its freedom very seriously. Proud of its membership in NATO and its friendship with the United States, Estonia is among the most committed of all the countries willing to send soldiers to Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 2002, Estonia — a country with fewer than 1.5 million people — sent its first soldiers to stand alongside the United States in the war on al-Qaeda and the Taliban. In 2003, Estonia signed on as one of the original members of the so-called “coalition of the willing” to fight the war in Iraq.

That may not sound newsworthy until you realize that this tiny country had no army until 1994 when Soviet troops finally left. As one army officer said, “We started from scratch.”

We saw this first generation of Estonian troops training for international missions on what used to be a Soviet military base not far from the town of Paldiski, about 50 miles from the capital city of Tallinn. Thirty young soldiers got their briefing in the snowy woods before tackling a tough lesson on searching for suspected Taliban fighters and weapons.

A soldier trains in Estonia’s fierce winter weather. Photo: Sally Garner

After scoping out possible approaches, they drove their armored personnel carriers up to abandoned Soviet barracks, a perfect training ground for soldiers learning how to maneuver in Afghan villages and towns. Perfect — except for the weather which is the complete opposite of the heat and dust they’ll experience during their upcoming summer tour of duty.

It’s an amazing sight to see. And what makes this a story that producer and cameraman Ara Ayer and I won’t forget is the discovery that many of these soldiers’ fathers were forced to serve in the Soviet Army during its long and disastrous invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

But these Estonian troops aren’t really interested in history. They’re focused on their country’s future and value their international service for the combat experience they can’t get in their very young country. As one lieutenant told us, “We always need to be ready for any enemy who wants to take our freedom away.”

- Sally Garner

Watch for Worldfocus’ upcoming series exploring the Baltics in the coming weeks.

Electricity is still a problem in Iraq.

Despite a reduction in violence and democratic elections in Iraq, the U.S. Department of State’s recently-released report on conditions in Iraq throughout 2008 stated that there is “widespread, severe corruption at all levels of government.”

Officials in the Iraqi government have embezzled an estimated $18 billion in American aid. On Monday, a dozen policemen were arrested in connection with a series of killings and kidnappings.

Nearly six years after the war began, Iraq still has many infrastructure problems, dealing with little electricity. Bloggers across Iraq describe the legacies of war in Iraq and discuss the state of its fledgling democracy.

Mohammed, an Iraqi dentist who has decided to take his pregnant wife to Jordan for delivery, describes the country’s decayed health sector:

I wish there is a person to blame or specific side to throw the blame on but unfortunately there are countless sides and people to throw the blame on…it’s all about corruption, decades of falling behind the medical developments, physicians and doctors with little medical ethics who will have high ethics when they leave Iraq, doctors who are really bad in their job but holds important positions because they are from a specific political party or they know “people”, sectarian violence, gangs working under the mask of religion, people with agenda of brain-killing Iraq…and the list goes on.

[...]About two months ago we applied for a visa to Jordan. Thank god we got it, we got the visa and we were approved for entering Jordan, I still can’t believe that this is possible; us getting to Jordan so that my wife could have a natural delivery with good medical care and overcome the medical disasters here.

Another blogger, IraqPundit, agrees that continued squabbling and corruption has deprived Iraqis of basic services:

Much like the rest of Iraq, the people of Basra want electricity, water, and they want the garbage to be collected. It’s clear the religious parties failed the people. Perhaps Iraqis will vote for new politicians who will actually provide basic services.

[...]My own family in Baghdad are indeed frustrated with the lack of services. But they don’t blame democracy, they blame the religious parties and corrupt politicians, and the terrorists who bombed electrical facilities promptly after they were repaired. Sure there was more water and electricity during Saddam Hussein’s era, but not that much more. If it was so great, why did we have all those generators?

The “Life is a Scrapbook” blog says that small-scale corruption and bribery is a part of daily life in Iraq:

It’s not called corruption, it’s called the cost of doing business. Recently a new regular style gas station opened near our brigade headquarters and not long after it did, the brigade commander’s personal security detachment roughed up a lot of the black market gasoline vendors and dumped their gas on the street. This action was within their legal right since the stands are illeal but was it a coincidence? New gas station opens; the local authority, the Army General, then roughs up the illegal vendors that had been ignored previously, add in that a week later the illegal vendors where back in full force. Do you think that there might have been some kick backs from both sets of gasoline vendors? I’m not saying there was, I just find it interesting [...] there might have been some money changing hands.

A journalist with NBC’s “World Blog” describes Iraqi war widows:

I recently visited the Iraqi Tourism Board to see some old friends and contacts. I went in smiling because I hadn’t been there for while and was excited to see my old friends, but the place had an eerie feel to it. It looked darker – and it was. In every room, when I popped in my head to say hello, there were women dressed in black from head to toe.

As a cup of coffee was placed in front of me, my curiosity finally got the better of me. I asked if a colleague had died or something? A woman covered in black responded, “They killed my husband and burned my home. So we moved to a Sunni neighborhood; stress and grief killed my mother a week later.”

I turned my head to the woman next to her and she said, “They killed my brother in front of his wife and children…just because he is Shiite living in a Sunni neighborhood.”

The smile I had on my face when I arrived was long gone. I actually felt ashamed that I had a smile on my face to start with. So, I chugged down my coffee and quickly left.

Photo courtesy of Flickr user michaelramallah under a Creative Commons license.