Violence on the upswing

At least fifty people were killed around noon Iraq time as the explosions from two separate car bombings in the recently restive Sunni areas of Ramadi and Baqouba ripped through crowded areas during lunch time.

Blame will surely be laid at the feet of the mysterious specter if al Qaeda, because the attacks were mounted via car bombs.

Forty people were killed and eighty more wounded in Baqouba when a bomb placed outside a government headquarters was detonated. Baqouba is the provincial capital of Diyala province.

Meanwhile, in Ramadi, capital of Anbar province, a suicide bomber exploded his charge outside a popular restaurant. That blast killed 13 people and wounded 14 others, according to hospital and police sources.

The U.S. military pegged the death toll as slightly lower than the Iraqi police, and in the words of a military spokesperson I heard frustration and fear that the situation is rapidly getting out of control again. "These acts are intended to inflict fear into the local population and are just another example of the cruelty of the anti-Iraqi insurgency," said Major Peggy Kageleiry in a statement released to the press.

It all leads me to wonder - did the Sunni's just lay low while aWol moved in the Surge™ troops to buy him enough time to pass the baton off to the next president? Is the civil war resuming after a hiatus, where those fighting it rested up, cleaned their weapons and had some sons? Seems to me like there might be a case to be made for that hypothesis.