How can something as volatile as Iraq be called a "time-bomb"? Maybe a word or two is in order ...

Just you wait ...

How many of you have noticed that (1) Turkey invaded Iraq last week, (2) the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) continues to harass for a separate Kurdistan--after at least a decade now--at least since before I left the region (I was up in Dubai at the American University there), (3) the Sunnis and Shia disagree bitterly (even this weekend) as regards the disposition of the oil in the Northern Province but at least agree on one thing--that proceeds from the oil there won't be given to the Kurds (who happen to live there) and (4) the "surge" is regarded as "working" (by John S. McCain, George W. Bush and one or two others in the Dallas area) on the basis of the reduced US KIA figures being reported in Iraq?

Add to that the continuing build-up of Sunni and Shia forces in their own areas of Iraq--while under the relative safety of a "cease fire" (hardly a "truce") unilaterally declared by Al-Sadr--and happily accepted by the Sunnis in the Baghdad neighborhoods. Even General Petraeus has suggested that the various "sides" in the Iraq Civil War are using this time of reduced open hostility (a.k.a. "the surge is working") to continue to arm and organize their units for possible (probable!)future conflicts.

Kurds? Sunnis? Shia? The Three-Ring Circus called "Iraq" (a.k.a. "the surge is working") is likely to devolve into a civil war (ref. photo above) before Mr. McCain can gasp, "the surge is working" one last time.