I've grown numb to much of the news coming from Iraq, but today's events documented in the NY Times left me shocked--shocked at the rapidity of the deterioration there, at the brutal sectarianism, and at the gap between our perception of Iraq its horrifying reality. There were three distinct but interconnected events in the article that warrant discussion.
First, the attack on American forces:
In a coordinated assault on an American combat outpost north of Baghdad, suicide bombers drove three cars filled with explosives into the base today, killing two American soldiers and wounding at least 17 more, witnesses and the American military said.The brazen and highly unusual attack, which was followed by fierce gun battles and a daring evacuation of the wounded Americans by helicopters, came on a day of violence across the country that left more than 40 people dead in shootings, suicide bombings, mortar attacks and roadside explosions.
Far from placing the roadside bombs or picking off American soldiers at night, the 'insurgents' have now graduated to plotting full-scale sieges of American Military bases. All caveats against Vietnam comparisons put aside, the insurgency we're engaged with now in Iraq is now closer to the Vietcong in terms of organization and sophistication than the picture painted to us by the Bush Administration for so many months.
The second notable piece of information in the article deals with the ongoing Balkanization of Iraq:
There is already evidence that Shiite militia leaders are either heading to strongholds in the south and, the officers said, Sunni militants are likely to adopt a similar strategy.
Military commanders believe that insurgents are congregating in ethnic strongholds across the country. But why? Because they believe that the dissipation of Iraq is occurring--not later, but now--and they are preparing for partition, much in the same way that the Indian Subcontinent saw mass migrations (some forced, some not) prior to the creation of independent India and Pakistan.
Finally, and perhaps most horrifying, is the description of mass execution of an entire family, a family plausibly fleeing towards safety:
A family of 13 was slaughtered on the road to Falluja, about 12 miles northwest of Baghdad, because they were from a tribe known to oppose the actions of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, according to witnesses. The family, including an elderly woman and two small boys, was dragged out of an Akia minibus, lined up in the middle of the road and shot. The executions took place in full view of others on the road, where traffic was stopped, witnesses said.The entire family was slaughtered simply because they came from a tribe that opposed Al Qaeda. They were killed in the middle of the highways. Their murderers stopped traffic so hundreds of people could watch them slaughter an entire family, including woman, children, and the elderly.
I am terrified for the innocent people in Iraq--of which there are too many to estimate--but while our presence there causes unnecessary death and suffering, there is such hatred, hatred that runs so deep, that our staying or leaving will do nothing to preclude the Tigris and Euphrates from turning red.
We should leave as soon as possible, before we compound the inevitable and unfolding atrocities of tomorrow.
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