Iraq at the 11th hour

The Daily Journal ^ | April 8 2006 | Thomas L. Friedman

[jmc1969]

The fate of the entire U.S. enterprise in Iraq now hangs in the balance, as the war has entered a dangerous new phase. It is the phase of barbaric identity-card violence between Sunnis and Shiites. In the late 1970s, I covered a similar moment in Lebanon, and the one thing I learned was this: Once this kind of venom gets unleashed – with members of each community literally beheading each other on the basis of their religious identities – it poisons everything.

You enter a realm that is beyond politics, a realm where fear and revenge dominate everyone’s thinking – and that is where Iraq is heading. Jeffrey Gettleman reported last Sunday in this paper about Mohannad al-Azawi, a quiet Sunni pet shop owner in Baghdad who was abducted from his store and found murdered the next morning.

His skin was covered with purple welts, and his face and legs had drill holes in them. His brother Hassan, the story noted, ‘‘carries the autopsy photos with him, along with a pistol. ‘I cannot live without vengeance,’ he said.” Once embedded, this cycle of fear and revenge is almost impossible to break. People conclude that the only thing that can protect them is a militia from their own sect, not the police or the army.

Then these militias, which come to life to protect the neighborhood, take on a life of their own. They develop protection rackets, feel the thrill of power and, as that happens, start to do all they can to prevent the government from restoring its authority.

Finally, as the BBC noted in a recent report from Baghdad, some Iraqi politicians are now concluding that ‘‘they can gain more power and influence from building on sectarian loyalties than from appeals for national unity.” When politicians decide they can get ahead by appealing more to fear than to hope, national reconciliation goes up in smoke.

Everybody is wearing the same uniforms. Whole sections of the city have virtually fallen to gangs and terrorists. People and businesses are being robbed and the employees kidnapped en masse in broad daylight and with complete ease as though security forces are nonexistent, although we see them everywhere.

Donald Rumsfeld’s criminally negligent decision not to deploy enough troops in Iraq to begin with created this security vacuum. But the insecurity was compounded by the unique enemy that emerged to take advantage of that vacuum – Sunni Islamo-nihilists.

These are a disparate collection of groups with one common agenda: America and its Iraqi allies must fail; they must not be allowed to build Iraq into a Western-style, democratizing society. When you are up against an enemy whose only goal is that you must fail, and which does not care about how much death and destruction it inflicts on its own people, let alone on others, it is extremely difficult to establish order.

The Iraqi Shiite community showed remarkable restraint in the face of the murderous provocations by these Islamo-nihilist gangs during the past three years. But that restraint is over. It’s now clear that some Shiite militias are ready to match the Sunni nihilists, killing for killing. So the slide into a medieval barbarism has begun.

[MNJohnnie]

Nonsense. As both the Freepers on the ground in Iraq and anyone who actually bothers to discover the facts knows. More "Here what I want to belive" instead of reality from the Lunatic Media. But that right, the DNC template is set. don't bother then with the little things like FACT.

[GSlob]

"...this cycle of fear and revenge is almost impossible to break..."
If allowed to burn itself out, it will break itself. Once all those with excessively strong tribal and sectarian identities mutually exterminate one another, it would finally become possible to make the place into something more decent.

[SevenMinusOne]

Complete hyperbole BS by Friedman (he floats back and forth between BS and reality quite often....a typical trait of a candyas$ individual)

[jimbo123]

More cycle of violence nonsense from Brokeback Tom at the NY Times. Friedman has always been a Saddam groupie and is hysterical over the prospect of his hero meeting the gallows in the summer.

[MNJohnnie]

Break it down. Basically old broken back Tom is merely regurgitating the same old garbage in a new package. Still cannot find the intellectual or moral honesty to admit Bush was right and he was wrong. Simply cannot admit Bush and Co. have clearly understands the reality of how to fight terrorism far better all along then self promoting "Brilliant Tom".

[rawcatslyentist]

>"with members of each community literally beheading each other on the basis of their religious identities – it poisons everything.">

Oh that's so horrible! But when they do it to an infidel it's an AOK Okeydokey expression of their faith!

Sura 9:5 of the “Koranus,” “Slay the idolaters wherever you find them, and take them captives and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush.”

"Make war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe not in God." Sura 9:29

"Strike off their heads then, and strike off from them every finger tip." - Sura 8:12

Don't make them mad! They're already commanded to murder allah mankind! Don't make them mad!

There's nothing worse than having an angry satan worshiper saw your head off.
But on the other hand if the slimes are happy maybe they'll use a sharp knife, and be mercifull!

Don't make them mad!

Aap aap ahh dap dap!!!!!
It's a religion of peace
It's a religion of peace

It aint Slim W, but this'll gitr done!
Kill A Commie For Mommie

Seven Dead Monkeys Page O Tunes

[ccmay]

There are three or four Shias for every Sunni. How did the Sunnis dominate their more numerous countrymen bfore the liberation? By being more vicious and ruthless. The Shia are not going to let that happen again.

The onus is competely on the Sunnis, in my opinion. If they cannot control their maniacs, then they will suffer mightily at the hands of the Shiite militia-- and deserve it.

I favor the same solution for Iraq as I favor for the Holy Land: partition and quarantine. The Salafis can't kill you if they have all been trucked into Saudi Arabia at gunpoint.

-ccm

[Hound of the Baskervilles]

"If allowed to burn itself out, it will break itself. Once all those with excessively strong tribal and sectarian identities mutually exterminate one another, it would finally become possible to make the place into something more decent."

Hmmmm. Never thought of things that way. Hope it never has to happen but if it does some good may come of it.

[GSlob]

'The Salafis can't kill you if they have all been trucked into Saudi Arabia at gunpoint. "
Wrong. Then they will resort to launching kassams or something similar.

[rdcorso]

Thomas wants the Shiites to sit on their hands and let the Sunnis slaughter them.I think the Shiite waited long enough before they decided that the best defense is a good offense.The Sunnis deserve a good beating at the hands of the Shiites and Kurds.

[manwiththehands]

You enter a realm that is beyond politics, a realm where fear and revenge dominate everyone’s thinking – and that is where Iraq is heading.

Does anyone else besides me believe that Islam is nothing more than a huge multi-faction "syndicate", maiming and/or killing members of other "families" deemed "disloyal" and operating under the guise of a "religion"?