The Baathist hangers on and Sunni Whaabists are conducting a civil war already. Did innocents get killed in Salvador? Yes. Are they now getting killed by the car bombers in Iraq? Yes. Counter-terror actions like targeted assassination of leaders of these illegal combatants is both reasonable and lawful. They are not protected by the Geneva Convention and deserve only death. Your comparison to Rwanda is flawed also. I don't hear widescale ethnic murder being advocated here, do you? In the long run, giving a recalcitrant enemy hope only prolongs the conflict and kills more innocents. Further, we and the Iraqis must shut down the flow of arms, money and fighters from Iran and Syria - even if it means violating the borders of either of those two countries. Our enemies have chosen this kind of warfare because they know our weaknesses. We will lose if we get too squeamish. That is, in fact, what they are counting on. It will not be pretty, but we can win, if we are persistent.
You can save your fingertips. AlibizuX has been zotted already. Looks like it's already dangerous to express any misgivings about administration policy. Even possible policy. (Or else he was more outrageous on some other thread.)
I will preface this comment by saying that I wholeheartedly agree with this policy and hope that it is implemented thoughtfully, unapologetically and without reservations.
What we are talking about here is creating a 'counter-insurgency' operation along the lines of the Afghan Mujahedeen of the 80's. At the time our enemy was the Soviet Union who are now the russians, our 'friends'.
What happens after these counter-insurgents have completed their task, will they then be unemployed? Perhaps they will then occupy themselves with some political aims. Perhaps some of them will become reborn to the glories of the Jihaad after the insurgency and start attacking the great satan.
We will then be again faced with the charge that we trained the people who are attacking us. We have to learn from history here. If we are going to train counter-insurgents, then we better damn well make sure we account for the blowback.