Carol J. Williams of the Los Angeles Times reports that the number of suicide bombings in Iraq in May are unprecedented anywhere in the world.
Increasingly, Iraqis are believed to be carrying out at least some of the suicide attacks.
U.S. officials and Iraqi analysts say the insurgents' resources are increasing on several fronts: money to buy cars and explosives, expertise in wiring car and human bombs, and intelligence leaks that help the insurgents target U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Suicide attacks are on the rise because the explosive devices "are simple to construct and easy to operate, thus making suicide bombers difficult to detect," said Navy Cmdr. Fred Gaghan, in charge of the Combined Explosive Exploitation Cell in Iraq, which studies bomb scenes for clues to insurgent tactics.
"At this time, there is nothing to indicate that the availability of volunteers is on the decline," he said, noting the media coverage and videos of suicide bombings posted on the Internet that fuel extremist recruitment.
The absence of indicators that the supply of volunteers for suicide missions is drying up suggests two possible things to me. Either 1. a large number of the potential volunteers consider their lives hopeless unless the Americans leave, or 2. the potential volunteers have a strong belief that they are winning the war. Nothing stops both from being true at the same time.
The obvious responses are to create circumstances in which the potential insurgents do not need to fear for their way of life, and also to somehow reinforce the idea that America will not leave Iraq until it is at peace. In the U.S. the first will be resisted politically by the right wing, especially the NeoCons. The second will be resisted by the American Left-wing. But I don't think we can get out of Iraq reasonably without leaving a horrible chaotic mess without doing both. Nor does taking those actions assured that we will not still totally fail in and for Iraq.
At least that is what I suspect.
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