According to statistics, more than 1,000 Iraqis fell last week in explosions which occurred at an average rate of fifteen per day, and randomly struck any location where a car could be parked or a bomb planted throughout Iraq. Many of these bloodbaths did not have specific targets and were mere random killings carried out in any place that is accessible to the killer. At this level, impotence and the lack of political will within the government and among the political parties in Iraq rendered these mobile massacres some sort of inescapable fate. Hence, they were neither contained by the wide condemnations nor by the numerous security plans, while the agreements and efforts to reach solutions to the pervasive political crisis failed to limit their number. It is as though Nouri al-Maliki's government is benefitting from the sustainment of this security challenge that is prevailing over the country, especially since it keeps accusing opposition factions of embracing it and providing it with the adequate environment, reaching the point of seeing judicial charges related to terrorism addressed to figures from these factions. And it is as though the opposition is also benefitting from this situation, thus intensifying its campaign against Al-Maliki by pointing to the ongoing terrorist explosions and his inability to deter them. Some in the opposition are even accusing official bodies affiliated with Al-Maliki of collaborating with those carrying out the explosions, the killings, and terrorist attacks, especially when tackling the confounding escape of detainees held on terrorism charges from prison. In both cases, no one in Iraq is ignoring or concealing the acute sectarian tensions on all levels, regardless of the formulas put forward here and there. Al-Maliki's group and allies have a theory saying that terrorism is coming from the Sunni neighboring states, in order to eliminate the Shiite component that has reached advanced levels in the authority and its institutions. But the opposition has a counter theory saying that terrorism is being fueled by Iran, the sponsor of the Iraqi Shiites, in order to eliminate the Sunni component in the country. These two theories have become the ideological pillar of political action in Iraq, and this means the discontinuation of national dialogue. The biggest proof for that is the failure - despite all the dialogue attempts - to complete the formation of the government in which Al-Maliki himself is controlling key ministries by proxy, due to the absence of concord over who will assume them based on the Erbil agreement for the formation of the current government. In the meantime, the theory advocated by each side is becoming deeply rooted, reaching the point of seeing direct accusations of terrorism made by Al-Maliki's team to Sunni figures, and direct accusations made by the opposition to Al-Maliki of benefitting from the mobile killings to avoid discussing any consensual solution to the crisis. What further increased the risks provoked by the obstruction of national dialogue is the possibly intentional paralysis of Parliament, which is supposed to be a place of discussions and dialogue between the government and the opposition. Iraq is definitely affected by what is happening in its neighboring states, whether in the West in Syria or in the East in Iran, and the sectarian sentiments fueled by the developments in both countries. In addition, since the American invasion, Iraq has become the theater of regional conflicts and the exchange of messages between the neighbors, especially Iran, Turkey, and the Gulf. But the latter reasons and factors could not have secured the necessary political climate for the ongoing massacre, had it not been for the availability of the right soil on the domestic scene. This massacre in Iraq has become an available mechanism - not to forget the easiest – to conduct political action, in light of the severance of internal dialogue, the absence of a wish to seek a real national solution taking the interests of all the components into account, and the creation by this climate of the right environment for the continuation of the regional conflicts.
