Deep Shiite

We are embarking on a new front in Iraq, with potentially far reaching and dangerous consequences. We have started to engage the shia militias. With over 60% of the iraqi population being shiite, and with the militias, particularly Al-Sadr's, enjoying wide popular support, this will certainly not be a cakewalk. These are the people who make up hezbollah and like to beat themselves with whips and chains for entertainment in their annual flagellation rite.

I heard some light bird pentagon p.r. flack opine the other day that this was actually a good turn of events. We have gone far enough with pissing off the sunnis so we can now start antagonizing the shia. And we can let the Kurds get fucked once again like we always do. Amazing that we let Turkey come in and do whatever they want to obliterate these "terrorists".

As most of us know, Iraq was a loose coalition of warring tribes that was created in the early 1920's after the fall of the Ottoman empire and probably not a very good idea to start with. The Turkmen got theirs and the Kurds got the short straw. For all the bleating about the Palestinian cause, it is so wonder that we hear so little from the arab world about the rights of the Kurds, who are heavily repressed in Turkey and elsewhere.

It leads me to think: this administration talks so much about winning but no one bothers to define the word. For many I talk to it's killing every last one of them. The old Curtis Lemay strategy. Save them by killing them. What exactly is a win? Do we think that the country will ever reach a stasis where they will be happy to live with each other in peace? I can not see it. I hope that I am wrong. Too many people strapping bombs on for their one way ticket to the eternal palm grove. These are not bad guys who ride into town with black hats. They are committed and they see us as occupiers and interlopers. I think that we get out and let the chips fall as they may. It is not worth any more american lives. These people have an alternate frame of reference and we are fighting against centuries of ignorance and a broad cultural divide.

Say what you want about the good old U.S. of A., the methodists haven't taken up arms against the baptists yet.

Robert Sommers