Iraq needs leadership worthy of its people

Rachel Shabi writes for the Guardian:

As a new wave of violence ravages Iraq, a new wave of "oh dearism" seems to have taken hold of us. Coined by the documentary filmmaker Adam Curtis, this disease occurs when terrible, bloody conflicts are covered by oversimplifying media without any meaningful context, so that we don't ever really get what we're looking at. Stripped of any tools to form a take, our only remaining response to Iraq, as to a litany of other seemingly inscrutable conflicts, is reduced to: "Oh dear."

In the coverage of Iraq, there are mentions of al-Qaida, a "sectarian conflict" and a civil war, as we hear about yet another roadside or restaurant bomb that has killed yet more innocent civilians. These terrorising attacks are now routine, increasingly co-ordinated and horrifyingly effective.