http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/1082One of the most common complaints heard from supporters of the invasion and occupation of Iraq is that good news from the country is seldom heard in the US. Now it appears as though the bad news has been obscuring the awful news.
In a 3,200 word report, the Washington Post’s Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru chronicle a relentless, deadly and effective effort by Kurdish and Shiite militias to carve out their own spheres of influence in the fractured country.
When writer Steven Vincent was murdered in Basra a few weeks ago, two days after he lashed out in the pages of the New York Times at British forces for permitting Shiite militias to infiltrate the police forces in Iraq’s second largest city, I wrote that he may have suffered from a fundamental misunderstanding of the situation, and that the militias had not so much infiltrated the police as become them. That appears to be true, not only in Basra but throughout the south of Iraq and in the Kurdish-controlled north as well.
Shadid and Fainaru describe a situation reminiscent of Somalia or the south of Sudan, where various factions carry out their agendas either unmolested by or in concert with the central government, depending upon the circumstances
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
