Thursday, March 29, 2007

The face of civil war

"The final hours of Saadoun's life reveal the ferocity with which Shiite militiamen are driving Sunni Arabs from Baghdad house by house, block by block, in an effort to homogenize the capital. It is happening even as thousands of additional American troops and Iraqi soldiers have entered Baghdad as part of President George W. Bush's "surge" strategy."

Go read the sad story of the widow Saadoun and her seven children, now orphaned, all victims of Shiite ethnic cleansing, carried out within shouting range of US troops. Then ask yourself a) whether the US can stop even a fraction of this illegal activity with the "surge" troops; b) whether an outside party has ever successfully refereed a civil war and c) if not, what in the world can we accomplish there?

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