WaPo is reporting that a suicide bomber lured a group of day-laborers in a Shiite populated area to his van, claiming to be offering work. When his van exploded, he took 53 men & boys to the grave. That’s like, what… 3,816 virgins, right? But seriously, this attack comes on the heels of another attack, during which:
“Mothers and their children were shot down Monday by masked attackers wielding machine guns and grenades during the 30-minute attack, as were seven mostly elderly men sitting in a cafe and drinking tea. Later, Sunni Arab insurgents asserted responsibility, saying the attack was in retaliation for the deaths of Sunnis in the country’s increasing sectarian violence” (emphasis mine)
I haven’t paid a bit of attention to the recurring news stories on a seemingly daily basis, relaying yet again the myriad horrors and injustices the Iraqi people are presently suffering, because even the large-scale attacks on mostly innocent civilians are occurring with mind-numbing frequency. I say “large-scale,” because there’s no way to downplay 100, 200, or more, bystanders being indiscriminately and ruthlessly targeted by their brethren; 40 or 50 civilians getting blown-the-fuck-up a couple times a week qualifies as an absolute shitstorm, in my book. And for what exactly? It’s not because they want us out. Blowing each other up doesn’t put them one day closer to that – and I believe they’re intimately aware of this fact. The fact of the matter is this: there are plenty of factions in Iraq right now who either want, or passively accept the prospect of a complete civil war. And they’ll wage it whether we’re there meddling with their affairs, or not.
We can rock & roll, take Baghdad in a matter of days – and two years later can’t even begin to promise any vestige of peace, opportunity, or prosperity to the “liberated” Iraqis. Ousting Saddam, to use a culinary analogy was like microwaving prime-rib. It got the job done really fast, but the end result is much less than delectable. Is it our fault that it’s happening? Not really. We just took the steak out of the oven and zapped it in the microwave. Can we prevent it from happening? Notwithstanding the rose-colored glasses through which the MSM views the “sectarian violence,” no. We can’t stop it. And attempting to do so is only going to breed more contempt for us as a nation, endanger more of our countrymen, civilians and soldiers alike. Civil war in a nation that’s been oppressed by dictatorship for 30-plus years is inevitable, so we need to cut our losses – wash our hands of the quagmire it’s become.
Sectarian violence. It’s a civil war goddamn it. Or it’s terrorism. Both of which are complete, total failure.
But, when the only objectives are “liberation,” and some vague notion of “democracy,” what more can you expect?
