Sunni Arabs have accused the Shiite majority and U.S. forces of operating and supporting death squads throughout Iraq as charges surface that U.S. torture of Iraqis continues with apparent impunity. The latest charges by Sunni arabs now take on an ominous political complexion: the U.S. has taken the Shiite side in an Iraq civil war.The charges in themselves expose the no-win situation that Bush has gotten the U.S. into in Iraq; they expose the fraudulent nature of the war. But an Iraqi civil war is not the worst of the nightmare scenarios; an incompetent Bush administration siding with one faction over another most certainly is.
If Bush has allied de facto with the Shiite majority, America will have given up its last tenuous claim to being an honest broker. Most certainly Bush cannot square his empty "freedom" rhetoric with his support of a Shiite theocracy —especially one of his making.Inspectors Find More Torture at Iraqi Jails
Top General's Pledge To Protect Prisoners 'Not Being Followed'Ellen Knickmeyer, Washington Post Foreign Service
BAGHDAD -- Last Nov. 13, U.S. soldiers found 173 incarcerated men, some of them emaciated and showing signs of torture, in a secret bunker in an Interior Ministry compound in central Baghdad. The soldiers immediately transferred the men to a separate detention facility to protect them from further abuse, the U.S. military reported.
Since then, there have been at least six joint U.S.-Iraqi inspections of detention centers, most of them run by Iraq's Shiite Muslim-dominated Interior Ministry. Two sources involved with the inspections, one Iraqi official and one U.S. official, said abuse of prisoners was found at all the sites visited through February. U.S. military authorities confirmed that signs of severe abuse were observed at two of the detention centers.But U.S. troops have not responded by removing all the detainees, as they did in November. Instead, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials, only a handful of the most severely abused detainees at a single site were removed for medical treatment. Prisoners at two other sites were removed to alleviate overcrowding. U.S. and Iraqi authorities left the rest where they were. ...
If the Civil War lacks some of the outward signs of such a conflict, it's only because the Shiite leadership is content to let Americans and Brits run interference for them. Shiite leaders are not stupid. They understand that Bush is damned politically if he stays —but a full-fledged civil war will break out when U.S. troops are not around to take up the slack. It's hard to imagine how Bush —and his NeoCon propagandists —will be able to declare a victory and just leave. In the meantime, both sides have adopted Bush's simplistic lexicon; i.e. a "terrorist" is whomever either side disagrees with.
The facts on the ground, however, do not lend themselves easily to spin. Is there a chance that when the Americans are gone, everyone will make nice nice and share power? Only in your Bush inspired delusions! When the Americans no longer buffer the conflict, one side or the other, i.e., either Sunni or Shiite, will win. But only at the end of a bloody civil war. I see "theocracy" —not light —at the end of the tunnel.
But how do Iraqis themselves feel about that? 27-year-old Zeyad, a Baghdad dentist, surfs the net and blogs, He has been quoted in numerous reports recently reacting to an incipient theocracy in his country: "I wanted to kill someone after reading all that. Free my country, my ass! Do I have to immigrate and leave my country ... [to be free]?"
If Bush is allowed to get away with trashing the U.S. Constitution, replacing it with an insane and bogus "unitary executive" nonsense, Americans will be asking the same thing of their homeland: Will I have to leave my country to be free?
Some essential resources:
- Shi'ite politician will create new Iraq government
- [Too Late ] the truth dawns on Bush
- Violence claims more lives in Iraq
- Rumsfeld and his Enemies
- Arab World Raising Its Profile in Iraq
On a peripherally related topic, I am proud to allifiate with Progressive Blogosphere. You will find their headlines synidcated on this blog. Check out the nav bar. I am making this shameless plug as the topic of blogs has come up a number of times in the comments section here. There seems to be consensus that the blogosphere has become in a very short time an absolutely essential counter to the corporate mainstream media. The words "mainstream" and "corporate" are one and the same; it's a recipe for the same tired old paradigm, a guarantee that we stay in the the mess we're in.
Progressive Blogosphere has reached an incredible audience in a very short time and I am convinced that that will help many another blogger like myself. The name of the game is nothing less than making truth and informed opinion heard above the right wing noise and corporate propaganda machine.
'Toons by Dante Lee; use only with permission
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