Washington – Iraq’s political process has sharpened sectarian divisions, polarized relations between ethnic and religious groups, and weakened its sense of national identity, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.
In spite of a sharp increase in Sunni-Shiite violence, however, attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces are still the primary source of bloodshed in Iraq, the report found.
It was the latest in a series of recent grim assessments of conditions in Iraq, including a secret report filed recently by the chief of intelligence for the Marine Corps in Iraq reportedly concluding that the prospects for securing that country’s western Anbar province are dim and that there is almost nothing the U.S. military can do to improve the political and social situation there.
Monday’s GAO report was unusual in its sweep, relying on a series of other government studies. The report was downbeat in its conclusions: “Despite coalition efforts and the efforts of the newly formed Iraqi government, insurgents continue to demonstrate the ability to recruit new fighters, supply themselves, and attack coalition security forces. The deteriorating conditions threaten continued progress in U.S. and other international efforts to assist Iraq in the political and economic areas.”
The report relied on a number of findings made earlier this year by the United Nations, the U.S. State and Defense departments, U.S. intelligence agencies, and other sources to reach its conclusions.
The GAO said Congress must ask several questions as it considers the future. Among them:
What political, economic and security conditions must be achieved before the United States can draw down and withdraw military forces from Iraq?
Why have security conditions continued to worsen even as Iraq has met political milestones, increased the number of trained and equipped forces, and increasingly assumed the lead for security?
If existing U.S. political, economic, and security measures are not reducing violence in Iraq, what additional measures will the administration propose for stemming the violence?
The report came on another day of bloodshed in Iraq. A man wearing an explosive belt boarded a minibus carrying Iraqi army recruits Monday morning and detonated it when the vehicle reached a recruiting center in western Baghdad, killing 15 and wounding 18, according to the Interior Ministry.
