Posted on 02/25/2005 2:53:11 PM PST by jmc1969
BAGHDAD, Iraq (news - web sites) - Shiite Muslim assassins are killing former members of Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s mostly Sunni Muslim regime at will and with impunity in a parallel conflict that some observers fear could snowball into civil war.
The war between Shiite vigilantes and former Baath Party members is seldom investigated and largely overshadowed by the mostly Sunni insurgency. The U.S. military is preoccupied with hunting down suicide bombers and foreign terrorists, and Iraq's new Shiite leaders have little interest in prosecuting those who kill their former oppressors or their enemies in the insurgency.
The killings have intensified since January's Shiite electoral victory, and U.S. and Iraqi officials worry that they could imperil progress toward a unified, democratic Iraq.
"It's the beginning, and we could go down the slippery slope very quickly," said Sabah Kadhim, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. "We've been so concerned with removing terrorists and Islamists that this other situation has reared its ugly head. Both sides are sharpening their knives."
Since the Jan. 30 elections, Shiite militants have stepped up their campaign to exact street justice from men who were part of the regime that oppressed and massacred members of their sect for decades. While Shiite politicians turn a blind eye, assassins are working their way through a hit list of Saddam's former security and intelligence personnel, according to Iraqi authorities, Sunni politicians and interviews with the families of those who've been targeted.
(Excerpt) Read more at story.news.yahoo.com ...
I think we all feared this would happen.
The Shiites were oppressed for so long that some of 'em are finally taking care of business and righting some old wrongs.
I can't say I blame them either.
Paybacks are a bitch, ain't they?
What goes around comes round.
I'm having trouble feeling very bad about this.
Payback's a bi*ch.
The bad thing would be for real civil war to break out. The country is just starting to get things together and make progress. Civil war may be 2 steps backward.
You see, the rationale of that statement is that people in society will form vigilente groups, and what the vigilente does is NOT controlled. The criminal has far more to fear from torqued off members of society, than from the police. But, historically the vigilente groups have 'punished' the wrong person, and having the 'criminal' torn limb from limb is not uncommon. So, the police exist to uphold the law, and protect the criminal.
Anything by the left-leaning Yahoo to discredit the elections in Iraq. This is unfortunate I suppose, but the Baathist are reaping what they sowed. Frankly these revenge killings are quite restrained in terms of numbers compared to what we might expect from a population who saw hundreds of thousands of their people murdered by Saddam's Baathists. Saddam created this society of violence. Naturally its effects will continue to echo in a lack of respect for life such as we're seeing in these vigilante killings.
But Yahoo and the US media doesn't want to talk about that, or the much greater and more frequest acts of violence by people they indirectly glorify by calling them "the Resistance" or "insurgents," while refusing to call them what they are: terrorists.
You mean Muslims are permitted to fight back against Islamist killers? I thought that only applied against infidels.
The blood letting begins. A lot more will need to flow before Iraq will be stable again.
If the Sunnis had stepped down gracefully, I might have some trouble with this. But with Sunnis continuing to kill innocent bystanders because they want to return to their old tyrannical ways, who can blame the Shiites for striking back?
Sooner or later they will need a rule of law. But that means both sides need to stop killing people, not just one of them.
At a conservative guess Saddam and his boys put 300,000 people into the ground. If one of them were a relative of mine I don't think I'd be full of the milk of human kindness either.
"The blood letting begins. A lot more will need to flow before Iraq will be stable again."
Actually, this is old news. I heard about these revenge killings in an LA Times piece probably 16 months ago. It actually sounded a lot worse back then. Yahoo could only come up with 3 examples. It sounded a lot more widespread in the Times piece over a year ago. This is just an attempt by Yahoo to discredit the elections.
"It's the beginning, and we could go down the slippery slope very quickly,"
Or, with a little luck, the Shiites could kill all the Sunnis who fall into the bad-guy category and the world, or at least people like me, will go *shrug* they had it coming.
Honestly, now ...
if you knew the Bathist party member who had your family members murdered, or had friends 'vanish' into a mass grave, or perhaps had your daughter raped to ensure your cooperation, would you hesitate to exact a little revenge?
I don't know about you, but I would have my day, and it wouldn't be merciful ....
As soon as we're done with North Korea, Iran, Syria and maybe France we should get right on this problem.
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