<p>Pray for Iraq. It simply can not have a civil war. I feel bad for the people who live there. What a mess.</p>
<p>Seven US soldiers killed yesterday.</p>
<p>Civil war was an inevitable consequence of overthrowing Sadaam’s strongman regime. Nobody in the country or the region really has a perceived stake in a stable, unified Iraq.</p>
<p>The flaw in the US post-war strategy has been not recognizing the inevitability of Shiite control. We should have cut the best deal possible with Allatollah Sistani. Instead, we’ve been sticking our finger in a crumbling dike, in a futile attempt to stop the flood. The real irony is that we’ve been doing this only to benefit the Sunni minority – the people who have played the biggest role in killing our soldiers and undermining reconstruction efforts.</p>
<p>It’s a mess. And, yes, I feel very sorry for the Iraqis who had a vision of a stable political system. It’s been painful to read the Iraqi blogs, which have gone from so much optimism to despair in recent weeks. Yesterday was apparently quite frightening in Baghdad as things spiralled out of control.</p>
<p>See the two most recent posts on the mosque attacks and the deteriorating situation here:</p>
<p><a href=“http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/[/url]”>http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/</a></p>
<p>The Sunnis claim there have been retaliation attacks on 120 Sunni mosques by the Shiia.</p>
<p>interesteddad: How do you find those blogs? Do you have a link or two? Thanks.</p>
<p>I just posted the best one I’ve found. These are two educated Iraqi brothers in Bagdhad (dentists I believe). Educated and secular in outlook, they have supported a secular democratic government for Iraq. Their blog has been terrific in detailing the political wrangling that has taken place – very useful stuff for sorting out the factions and factions within factions. They have also done a very good job of conveying what is presented on the Iraqi media.</p>
<p>As far as I can surmise, Allatollah Sistani was by far our best shot for stability in the country. He’s a moderate compared to some of the other options, like this Sadr character who is a firebrand thug. Allatollah Sistani appears to be one of the few calming influences in the country, but he’s not our cup of tea because his vision is for an Islamic government. We had hoped that our boy, Allawi (who has his own strongman tendencies), could achieve political traction. But, he doesn’t have any real base of support. Once Saddam was toppled, the Shiia majority had the only real functioning political party (mosque-based organization).</p>
<p>The U.S. has heavy handedly backed political horses and in each case seen it backfire: Chalabi, Allawi, and most recently Mahdi over Jaafari.</p>
<p>When the U.S. finally Got Reality and realized that Allawi’s party, with just 25 seats in parliament, was not going to get the prime minister’s slot, they turned their attention to the Cabinet, intent on making sure that SCIRI or anyone with control of a miltia doesn’t get the Interior Ministry. </p>
<p>I’ll make book right now that that doesn’t happen either.</p>
<p>What an effing mess we have created…and we are supposed to trust the judgement of our “leaders”</p>
<p>So much for easy in easy out…</p>
<p>The mess was created when Iraq was formed many years ago.</p>
<p>Yes. That is true. The borders imposed on the Middle East at the end of WWII have created nothing but problems.</p>
<p>Short answer: yes.</p>
<p>i’m glad more people riot over 6 month old cartoons than destroyed mosques.</p>
<p>Iraq The Model is always a good read (and the best Iraqi blog I have found as well). I had some others that I used to read but they haven’t been updated in awhile.</p>
<p>Yes, Barrons, but we’ve made the mess worse. First rule of international action: do no harm. We’ve effed up in so many dimensions at once that it’s unbelievable in a competent government.</p>
<p>Check that…</p>
<p>interesteddad:
I don’t know how I missed your link. Sorry 'bout that.</p>
<p>Soccerguy, there were plenty more deaths after this than with the cartoons. And this was when there is a 20 hour curfew in effect. 200 in just a matter of hours. Imagine if there had not been a curfew.</p>