The US is so f***ked! "Iraq at the Gates of Hell"!

[leftchick]

This is the most disturbing article I have read yet on the prospects of Iraq's future. Any future!

"An all-out conflict in Iraq would make Lebanon seem quaint"!!

:(


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GH20Ak01.html

Iraq at the gates of hell
By Ashraf Fahim

<snip>

Two years ago, Arab League secretary general Amr Moussa predicted ominously that an invasion would "open the gates of hell" in the region. At the time, Western ears heard melodrama in that warning, the bombastic rhetoric of an out-of-time Arab nationalist.

In retrospect, of course, it was nothing if not prescient. The invasion unleashed unspeakable horrors - cities bombed to ruin, gritty urban combat, gruesome beheadings, apocalyptic car bombings. Civil war, however, would truly complete Moussa's prophecy. It would be a tragedy to dwarf Iraq's current blood-soaked chaos, ushering in not only a paroxysm of internecine killing, but perhaps a regional conflagration that would send ripples of instability far beyond.


<snip>

Iraq's descent into zero-sum sectarianism has increased fears in the Arab world that it will become another Lebanon, where a gruesome 15-year civil war tore that country's intricate sectarian mosaic asunder. The denominational map in Iraq is not as maddening as it is in Lebanon, but the grievances of Iraq's three major communities are becoming ever more intractable. And Iraq's population of 25 million, 10 times larger than Lebanon's, clearly has a stellar per capita rate of martial acumen to go with an apparently endless reservoir of arms. An all-out conflict in Iraq would therefore make Lebanon seem quaint.

<snip>

The joke in Iraq before the invasion was that Iraqis actually wanted the gates of hell to be opened so they could get out. But even Iraqis' stubborn gallows humor is fading as the prospects for a better future after Saddam diminish. Every hour the violence continues there are countless new scores to be settled, new hatreds born and old ones reinforced, and a greater likelihood that Iraq will disintegrate.

[unhappycamper]

1. Asia Times is one of my daily two dozen.

They always have interesting viewpoints on current events. I post a lot of their stuff in the Editorials and Other Articles forum.

http://www.watchingamerica.com/ is another site that is worth looking at.

[leftchick]

2. it is my daily as well

very scary stuff concerning Iraq in there. Thank you for the link, I will check it out. :)