Iraq

These are things I wonder about Iraq these days.

• Things are clearly improving in that fewer people are being killed.
  • How much of that is due to completion of religious cleansing of neighborhoods? How many mixed neighborhoods remain?
  • How many people are returning to Iraq from abroad? At one time millions of Iraqis had left.
• What’s up with Moktada al-Sadr? He backed down in Sadr City. Is he ready to join the political process in the upcoming provincial elections?
• Most of the people holding formal political power did not live in Iraq under Saddam.
  • Will those people be able to win elections if the Sunnis and the Sadrists vote whole-heartedly?
  • If the provincial elections do bring in new people, will they be less tied to Iran?
• There is an old joke about elections when Islamists run: one man, one vote, once. Can that be avoided in Iraq?
• A major reason for the invasion was to get a stable, friendly, oil producer. That has still not succeeded. Does it still matter?
• The civilian economy in Iraq is still wrecked; most people making money are on a government or U.S. payroll. This is not unlike other petrocracies, but it’s not a good thing. Can we do anything to change this?
• I continue to believe that the U.S. should get out as soon as possible. Maliki has suggested that U.S. forces should leave by 2010. Is there anything stopping us from doing just that?