First, U.S. President George W. Bush once again defended the war, saying it was necessary to topple Saddam Hussein. Speaking at the Pentagon, Bush was unapologetic while commemorating the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. He once again maintained that "removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision.".
Bush then repeated his recent mantra that the "surge" in U.S. troop levels and the new -- certainly more effective -- counter-insurgency policy pursued over the past 14 months by U.S. Gen. David Petraeus had already achieved "a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror".
That same day, however the British Broadcasting Corporation suggested a far different reality. The BBC reported that the death toll from Monday's terror bombing in the Iraqi city of Karbala had reached 52. Another 75 people were injured in the explosion, which occurred as U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was on a tour of the country.
Meanwhile, current U.S. opinion polls show Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., leading both the Democratic front-runners, Sens. Barack Obama , D-Ill. and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., in the American presidential race. Therefore Bush's bull-headedness on Iraq may yet carry over to the next administration. This looks an increasingly possible scenario as Sens. Obama and Clinton continue to battle it out, exposing and increasing each other's vulnerabilities.
Yet the latest terrible attack in Karbala serves grim notice that the successes Petraeus has achieved have only been tactical, not strategic or political, and that they remain fragile at that.
For Monday's bombing in Karbala and other insurgent attacks the same day could have been taken straight from the headlines of nearly four years ago when, once again, guerrilla attacks against Shiites in Iraq were on the increase with terror bombs routinely massacring scores of innocent people at or near cherished Shiite religious shrines.
Monday's attack occurred near the shrine of Imam Hussein. The attack highlighted the continuing capabilities of the insurgents to inflict massive random suffering on innocent civilians, and the continued inability of the U.S. armed forces and the U.S.-raised and trained Iraqi police and army to prevent such attacks from continuing.
Nor was the Karbala attack the only fatal one that day. At least 26 other Iraqis were killed in smaller scale attacks by believed to be in large part carried out by the insurgents. In Baghdad, six teenagers were killed when their sporting field was bombarded by mortar attack and two more U.S. soldiers were also killed in a roadside bombing north of Baghdad, the BBC reported.
Five years after launching a needless, un-necessary war on the Middle East, the current president of the United States refuses to acknowledge his errors, and continues to fantasize progress where there is none. One can only hope and pray that the candidates still fighting it out to succeed him may yet show the open eyed vision and political and moral courage to speak and act differently.