The Daily Background

NYT has an editorial today on Iraq. Reality check time.

Right now armed gangs of thugs, many of them wearing government uniforms, are spreading terror throughout the country. Some were trained by American forces to work for the Interior Ministry, but actually do the bidding of Shiite political and religious leaders. They harass, kidnap and murder people who follow different religious practices or support competing politicians, often with the help of weapons and equipment provided by an American government that had very different objectives in mind. The Times reported last week that Sunni forces working for the Ministry of Defense who were supposed to be guarding Iraq’s oil pipeline were instead freelancing as death squads, assassinating people who cooperated with the same government that paid the gunmen’s salaries.

Of all of George Bush’s many arguments for the invasion, the only one that has survived exposure to reality is that Iraqis deserve something better than a brutal dictatorship. But right now the country appears on the way to a civil war among the armed groups competing to impose order on their own terms. To avoid repeating a very bad history, the nation’s security forces must be brought under control by people who have both the will and the capacity to truly unite the nation.

Full.

Filed under: Iraq Related, Z-TDB Blog