I heard on the news yesterday that something of milestone had happened in Iraq. For the first time, Suni and Shiite tribes had put aside their traditional differences and formed an alliance for mutual security in their area/region/city - whatever it was. The significance of this is obvious.

However, any reasonable person would have to question as to the impetus for this event to occur, particularly at this time. Neo-cons would argue that the "surge" is working. In a way, that could be true. The surge has simply moved the violence from Baghdad to the burbs, so maybe the more imminent threat of violence was the motivation.

There is an equally compelling argument to be made that the Iraqis see the writing on the wall - that they now believe the people of the USA are tired of this war and want it ended ASAP, fuck the consequences to the Iraqis. Perhaps their sense of self-preservation is a tad stronger than they would have us infidels believe and they can see that they had better get their shit together because we aren't going to be there to bail their asses out much longer.

Personally, I think the vocal debate going on in this country is sending a clear message to the Iraqis to get their shit together or fuck off and die. It's a message that should have been sent five years ago!

...but then, that would have been five years with no oil shortages and no record oil company profits and no trillion dollars flushed down the toilet into the cesspool of war profiteers.

JMO

PC imp: