Endgame In Iraq (NYT Lead Editorial)

[wellst0nev0ter]

Yeap, they all but said this war is a failure, check it out.

Iraq is becoming a country that America should be ashamed to support, let alone occupy. The nation as a whole is sliding closer to open civil war. In its capital, thugs kidnap and torture innocent civilians with impunity, then murder them for their religious beliefs. The rights of women are evaporating. The head of the government is the ally of a radical anti-American cleric who leads a powerful private militia that is behind much of the sectarian terror.

<snip>

One vital goal is to persuade the Shiites to abort their disastrous nomination of Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Mr. Jaafari is unable to form a broadly inclusive government and has made no serious effort to rein in police death squads. Even some Shiite leaders are now calling on him to step aside. If his nomination stands and is confirmed by Parliament, civil war will become much harder to head off. And from the American perspective, the Iraqi government will have become something that no parent should be asked to risk a soldier son or daughter to protect.

Unfortunately, after three years of policy blunders in Iraq, Washington may no longer have the political or military capital to prevail. That may be hard for Americans to understand, since it was the United States invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein and helped the Shiite majority to power. Some 140,000 American troops remain in Iraq, more than 2,000 American servicemen and servicewomen have died there so far and hundreds of billions of American dollars have been spent.

Yet Shiite leaders have responded to Washington's pleas for inclusiveness with bristling hostility, personally vilifying Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad and criticizing American military operations in the kind of harsh language previously heard only from Sunni leaders. Meanwhile, Moktada al-Sadr, the radically anti-American cleric and militia leader, has maneuvered himself into the position of kingmaker by providing decisive support for Mr. Jaafari's candidacy to remain prime minister.

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. If Jaafari stays

We will have to invade that place and make it free for democracy.

[Inland]

2. Juan Cole has statements from Iraqi leaders and media

that are eyeopening in how far everything has fallen. Every day is a new collection.

http://www.juancole.com/

[bemildred]

3. Times should STFU with its pompous moralizing about this debacle.

They supported it and enabled it from day one. For them to start blaming the Iraqis for this mess NOW is contemptible.

[Amonester]

4. Turn the tables around, and:

The New York Times has become a Reich Wing propaganda leaflet (re.: "We, millions in the streets worldwide, Told Them So") that Americans should be ashamed to support, let alone purchase, read, and support their advertizers...