National Iraqi News Agency reports a Baghdad bombing claimed 2 lives and left ten people dead, a Mosayab suicide bombing claimed 12 lives and left twenty-five people injured, 2 Kirkuk attacks left 1 military officer and 2 soldiers dead, 2 Basra bombings left 7 people dead and six more injured, 2 Nasiriya bombings left 1 person dead and twenty-five injured, a Karbala bombing claimed 4 lives and left nineteen people injured, a Kut bombing claimed 4 lives and left thirty-two injured, northeast of Hilla a police officer and a military officer were injured by two car bombings, an armed attack outside of Tikrit left 1 Sahwa dead and four more injured, 2 people were shot dead in Falluja, a Mosul roadside bombing killed 2 police officers, and a Falluja armed attack claimed the life of 1 military officer and left two of his bodyguards injured.
That's a fairly common summary of violence these days.
So common that maybe we stop wondering why the military has bodyguards? A lot of people have bodyguards in Iraq.
A lot of officials, anyway.
But the bulk of the Iraqi people have no bodyguards.
(Iraqi Spring MC reports a Baquba bombing May 17th that left many dead.)
And under Nouri al-Maliki, they have no security.
Saddam Hussein oversaw (and ordered) torture and executions.
Nouri does the same today.
But otherwise, they had a level of safety that they don't have under Nouri.
The Iraqi Prime Minister could argue that the United States brought this pattern to Iraq with the illegal war.
That may be true, that may be false but, most of all, that doesn't matter one damn bit.
It's 2013. Nouri has been prime minister since 2006.
Where's the security.
And where are the heads of the security ministries?
In July 2012, Mohammed Tawfeeq (CNN) observed, "Shiite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has struggled to forge a lasting power-sharing agreement and has yet to fill key Cabinet positions, including the ministers of defense, interior and national security, while his backers have also shown signs of wobbling support." Those ministries still have no ministers over them. Nouri should have nominated people for the posts back in November 2010. He didn't. All this time later, he hasn't. This not only spits on the Iraqi Constitution and sets a very bad precedent for future prime ministers, it does have to do with the increased violence in Iraq.
The average Iraqi has no bodyguard. Even sadder, they have no functioning security.
