Salvaging Iraq (Hell On Earth): By David Ignatius

Salvaging Iraq

By David Ignatius
Wednesday, June 7, 2006; Page A23

The images from Iraq are of hell on earth: On Sunday 12 Iraqi students traveling to Baqubah to take their final exams were dragged from a bus and killed because they practiced the wrong religion. The next day gunmen dressed in police uniforms kidnapped 56 people near the bus station in central Baghdad and hauled them off in pickup trucks.

This is an Iraqi nightmare, and America seems powerless to stop it. What would you think if you were the parent of one of those dead Iraqi children? You would want the United States, the nation that broke the fragile bonds that once held Iraq together, to act more effectively to control this violence. And you would want Iraq's so-called government of national unity to behave like one and stop the killers who are devouring the decent people of Iraq. And if neither the Americans nor the Iraqi government could protect your children, you would turn to the militias.

The American project in Iraq is unraveling. The president continues to talk about staying the course, and the White House still issues upbeat predictions of victory, but the course we are on is not working. The election of Iraq's first permanent government in December was the last good chance to put the pieces together. Nearly seven months after the elections, Iraqi politicians still can't agree on who should run the two key ministries, defense and interior.

An American friend wrote me this week from Iraq: "The civil war rages in Baghdad, regardless of what the PC word currently being used in Washington to describe the killing is these days. Each morning when the sun comes up, the bodies of the killings from the night before are gathered up and sent to the hospitals where they try to figure out who they are. While the new government, all of the ministries, the coalition and the bloated embassy bureaucracy all sit frozen in the Green Zone, this civil war rages on just outside the wire and concrete barriers."

more at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/06/AR2006060601396.html

<the coalition and the bloated embassy bureaucracy all sit frozen in the <Green Zone, this civil war rages on just outside the wire and concrete <barriers

This kinda reminds me of the Romans at the Coluseum watching the Gladiators and Lions kill, gore, and maim innocent people just for the fun of it! Guess we're building a big embassy to fit more people in for the 'tail gate' parties and wine fests before the big events!