A rising death toll, violence in Basra and failure to name the defence and interior portfolios dominated Iraq's political arena this week It took at least 42,500 Iraqi civilians killed, the collapse of the Iraqi state, wanton death and destruction, mayhem and civil strife raging across Iraq for both United States President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to admit that "there had been setbacks and mis-steps in the conduct of the war on Iraq". Moreover, torture and human rights violations by American and British troops in Iraq with the latest revelations of the cold-blooded massacre committed by US marines against innocent civilans in Haditha made matters worse. For the majority of Iraqis, the Bush-Blair post- mortem of three years of invasion will do little to change the already established realities on the ground. As the situation in the country moves from bad to worse, the overall level of killing soars and it is far higher today than it was during 2003 -- the year of the invasion of Iraq. Today, at least 1,000 Iraqis are killed a month. In an attempt to play up the potential for change on the Iraqi scene and as a result of the formation of the new Iraqi government, both the British and American leaders hailed the step as "a new beginning" and a "momentum that ought to be seized". Such descriptions, however, served as yet another reminder of the same pattern used by these two Western leaders to present every step in the failing political process during the past three years as "a milestone". Their hypocrisy is sickening. The two leaders' exaggerated optimism over the new cabinet has been crushed by this week's events. The deadlock over the selection of the remaining two ministers for defence and interior remained unresolved. The parliament session held on Sunday was overshadowed by this unresolved issue. The Iraqi Accord Front, the main Sunni bloc submitted a list of other candidates for the Defence Ministry post. The names included Major General Ahmed Nuri Al-Samaraai, a staunch opponent of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and retired General Munir Al-Juhaishi. "The front insists on keeping its right to hold on to the defence portfolio so as to win the trust of the Sunni street which elected us," explained Khalf Al-Olayan, the front spokesperson and one of its candidates for the post. Although the security situation was at the heart of the discussions, other than setting up a parliamentarian committee to address the "security laxity" and the deteriorating situation in Basra, no breakthroughs were made on that front. On Tuesday, the death toll of Iraqi civilians killed in separate attacks across the country reached 60. Much of the focus has been given to the CBS crew who were a target of an attack which left two British journalists killed and one correspondent severely injured. Iraqis across the country continued to be victims of the worst sectarian violence. The violence continues unabated. On Saturday 10 people were killed in Baquba. On Monday 17 people died in two bomb attacks near the shrine of Imam Al-Adham in Al-Adhamiya while 30 were injured. In another attack in the Shia-dominated Al-Kadhmiya seven people were killed and nine injured. Academics continued to be targeted by violence. On Monday Mahmoud Jasim Mohamed, a professor at Al-Mustansiriya University was shot dead. Osama Al-Jadaan, chief of Al-Karabala tribe, was assassinated for the assistance his tribe provided to the Jordanian intelligence in arresting Ziyad Khalf Al-Karbuli, who is said to be a key aide for the Jordanian militant Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi. The events in Basra have presented yet another tough challenge to the new cabinet as the tension building up in Iraq's second largest city during the past few weeks came to a head this week. The city which has been under British control since the occupation of Iraq -- there are 7,000 soldiers based there -- has witnessed some of the worst violence ever since the invasion. A struggle over power, influence and oil revenues has pitted rival Shia groups against one another. The deteriorating situation promoted Iraqi President Jalal Talabani to urge the government to send a high-level delegation with wide ranging powers to Basra. "Whoever goes to Basra should be authorised to dismiss and appoint officials and to take other necessary measures," read the statement issued by the president's office. Two weeks ago, tensions intensified when the city governor Abdel-Latif Al-Waeli of the Islamic Fadhila Party, sacked the police chief for failing to end corruption in the city. The party which is a member of the Iraqi United Coalition, threatened that it will order its members in the Oil Ministry to stage a go-slow to halt the oil exports if it did not get the concessions it wanted from Baghdad. This is not the first time that the party attempts to trade its influence in the oil fields for more political gains in the government. According to Jamal Ismail, an Iraqi commentator, the political parties in the southern areas aim at expanding their authority at the expense of the federal authority and at being alone in using the resources in that area. "In March, the Fadhila party threatened to cut the flow of oil in the south because of the Sunni-Kurdish coalition," Ismail explained. Basra's oil terminal is Iraq's only source of income. The situation in Basra called into question the competence of the prime minister's much talked about plans to restore security. Iraqi analysts cast doubt on the ability of any security plan to end violence in light of two important factors: the lack of a timetable for occupation troops withdrawal and the inclusion of larger segments of the Iraqi society and the nationalist movements in the political process. What will prove the most difficult part in the plan, however, will be the personnel which will be assigned the mission to restore order to the streets of Baghdad and Iraqi cities. "The most difficult obstacle which the prime minister's new security plan will face is how to overcome public distrust in the police forces and army which should be assigned the protection of Baghdad and other Iraqi cities," said Wamidh Nadhmi, an Iraqi analyst. This is particularly important, he added, in light of the fact that the on-going political process failed miserably to stabilise the country.
