Getting better all the time (it can't get no worse)

Actually, yes, it can. Al-Jazeera for September 20 reports that

Two senior members of an influential Islamic authority in Iraq, the Association of Muslim Scholars, have been assassinated.

In the first incident, the body of Shaikh Hazim al-Zaidi was found in front of al-Sajjad mosque in Sadr City, a mainly Shia area in eastern Baghdad on Monday, an AMS spokesman told Aljazeera. ...

In the second incident, later on Monday, Shaikh Muhammad Jadwa was killed by armed men when he left al-Kauthar mosque in the Baya area, west of Baghdad. ...

The AMS is a conservative group that has worked for the release of foreign hostages. It strongly opposes the US presence in Iraq - a position that has made it possible to act as an intermediary in hostage negotiations.

A representative of AMS said they were investigating whether this was one incident or two incidents that just happened to come on the same day. But in either event, it's a little hard to understand who would gain by attacking the group. Two possibilities spring to mind, both just speculation, neither happy.

Because AMS is a Sunni group, we have to allow for the possibility that the killers are Shiites who targeted the Shaikhs because they are Sunni. Or, more darkly, someone wants people to think the attackers are Shiites.

Another is that the attackers are extremist Sunnis who regard the group's attempts to mediate release of hostages as collaboration. Related to this is the fact that earlier this month, one group asked AMS for a fatwa on whether or not kidnapping of foreigners working for occupation forces is allowed by Islam. Could be that someone doesn't want to risk getting the "wrong" answer.

The speculations are dark but it's hard to make any other kind about Iraq these days. From the daily newspaper of the Al-Mashriq Institution for Media and Cultural Investments, via the Iraqi Press Monitor for September 23:

Unknown assailants yesterday killed the head of the human rights office in Tikrit, Adnan Talib Faisal. ... Meanwhile, other assailants assassinated Baghdad regional council member Ilham Jamil Issa after kidnapping her from the school in the Abu Ghraib area where she works as a teacher.

Darker and darker.

Footnote: On the other hand, this is interesting. Al-Adala, the daily of the Supreme Council of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, reported (via IPM for September 22) that

[e]yewitnesses said residents of al-Karkh area have beaten and arrested six Arab terrorists who planted a bomb on Bab al-Muaddam Bridge. The bomb exploded without any casualties. The residents delivered the terrorists to government authorities. The residents were upset by the infiltration of the Arab fighters into their neighbourhood, which adversely affected their security.

The report was echoed by the newspaper of the Islamic Dawa Party, IPM said the next day. If the reports are accurate, it would be an interesting turn of events. I said back on June 30 that

a lot - I would venture most - Iraqis want this new undertaking to work as advertised. They want the promises of security, jobs, elections, and a departure of foreign troops to be true. And they are prepared, at least for the short term, to suspend their disbelief and give it a chance.

They want us to get our troops the hell out of their country, thank you very much, but that doesn't mean they desire a future of uncontained ethic warfare, even though that remains a serious possibility. Most of them, I suspect, like most people everywhere, just want to get on with their lives - and will, so long as events don't push them in another direction. (Which, again, they still well might.) I believe the use of the word "Arab" in the reports is meant to indicate they were not Iraqis and therefore might be viewed with as much suspicion (and growing resentment) as we are. I can't help but wonder if this incident says that at least some ordinary people are getting fed up with the violence around them.

Down through history, politicians and pundits alike have underestimated the ability of such ordinary fed up citizens to change their world, to change the calculations of the powerful. Maybe this will prove to be the beginning of another example. While I admit I'm not sure if in effect siding with the government will gain the ends they seek - security, jobs, elections, freedom from occupation - I do think it's better than passive acquiescence in murder.

So maybe I still have a little hope. Or maybe it's just gas.