As Shia Death Squads Roam, Lieberman & Bush Hear No Evil, See No Evil

[kpete]

Tuesday :: Nov 29, 2005
As Shia Death Squads Roam, Lieberman And Bush Hear No Evil, See No Evil

The overall tone of these stories is that the Shiites are ready to turn the Iraqi security services into a large Shia militia bent on payback against the Sunnis through a civil war, after the December 15th elections cement Shia dominance into place everywhere except the Kurdish north. And with Khalilzad bravely wanting to talk with Iran now about how to dial down the tensions, one doesn’t have to wonder why it is the moderate Sunnis who are the most desperate for Americans to stay the course in the country. Add to this the Bush plan for drawing down combat troops to be replaced by our on-demand Air Force for the Shia to use against the Sunnis, and you can see the makings of a real regional disaster for a number of reasons as Juan Cole notes here.

Yet, without surprise I am sure, all of this escapes Joe Lieberman, who just returned from Iraq to report how great everything is going there, and how the media is missing the story. But there is nary a word from Lieberman about any death squads, or the emerging story that private security contractors are firing upon Iraqi civilians for dubious reasons, almost as sport. To Joe, everything is swell. Even Time magazine (as Atrios notes) thinks that Lieberman isn’t in the real world when it comes to Iraq.

But Joe’s Kool-aid routine comes as his dance partner W gets ready to release his strategy for Iraqi victory tomorrow, three years late. Bush responded to critics this morning by saying once again that quitting is not an option, and that our forces will stay in Iraq until the commanders on the ground say that the Iraqis can take over.

Take over in doing what? Turning Iraq into Payback Central, with US air support, while watching Iraq's Sunni neighbors send in troops to fight it out with the Shia in the Super Bowl of regional catastrophies?
http://www.theleftcoaster.com/