December was safest month yet in Iraq

LA Times/Houston Chronicle:

December emerged as possibly the safest month for U.S. forces in Iraq since the 2003 invasion and the least deadly for Iraqi civilians in the past 12 months, but overall, 2007 was the bloodiest year of the war, according to figures released Monday.

The Iraqi Ministry of Health said 481 civilians died nationwide last month in war-related violence such as bombings, mortar attacks and sectarian slayings. It said 16,232 civilians died throughout the year. The 2006 death toll was 12,320.

On the military front, 21 U.S. personnel died in December, according to Department of Defense figures released by the independent Web site icasualties.org, making the average daily death tally last month the lowest since the start of the war. It was possible the military could report additional deaths for the month in coming days, but the casualty number was striking when compared to the December 2006 total of 112.

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U.S. officials say Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has committed $155 million to job-creation programs for the concerned local citizens groups, matching a U.S. financial commitment, but there is no deadline for them to be given permanent employment.

"That transition needs to take place in the course of 2008," U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker said last week.

Crocker and Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of U.S. troops in Iraq, both cited the return of refugees and national reconciliation as two other major issues looming in the coming year.

While it is good to see Iraqis coming back into the country, both U.S. officials said the Iraqi government needs to establish a system for settling disputes that arise if returnees find squatters or illegal renters in their homes.

Having done the impossible, there is still always more to do in Iraq. It remains largely dysfunctional in many areas. Most of these dysfunctions were masked by Saddam's tyranny and structural defects in the current government make it difficult to deal with them. The government has gone from dictatorship to a passive aggressive do nothingism. People are rebuilding on the grass roots level and that is the hope Iraqis have given themselves to take advantage of the drop in violence.