Iraqi Insurgent Bombings Indicate Grim Future Following US Withdrawal

(Aug. 26) -- From the U.S. perspective, the war in Iraq may be drawing to a close. But the violence continues, most recently with insurgent bombings in 13 towns and cities on Wednesday. The attacks killed more than 50 and sent a sufficiently clear message to the world: We're still here, and we'll vie for the country long after the Americans have gone.

"The countdown has begun to return Iraq to the embrace of Islam and its Sunnis, with God's permission," read a statement on an insurgent website following the attacks.

While combat units have been sent home, the U.S. still retains a force of 50,000 "advisers" in Iraq, and the number of private security personnel is also expected to climb. As long as that's the case, Washington should be able to prevent large-scale fighting for control of the country.

But after a seven-and-a-half-year occupation, Wednesday's attacks signal that the insurgency is far from over and is likely to be emboldened by subsequent U.S. withdrawals. Meanwhile, the country's main political problems and sectarian fault lines remain. Iran's ambitions for the country are unlikely to abide -- and may in fact be strengthened -- in the event of an attack on its nuclear facilities. And Sunni powers like Saudi Arabia will continue to act as a counterbalance. Meanwhile, the Kurdish question has not been resolved.

"For many Iraqis, especially those with memories of the four coups in the decade after the fall of the monarchy in 1958, the [current] apprehension underlines a dangerous combination of forces here that long bedeviled the Middle East: an unpredictable, fractured military and rising popular frustration with an isolated political class that has at times seemed rudderless, even helpless," writes The Washington Post's Anthony Shadid. And that was before the latest show of force by insurgents.