Iraq - Ethnic Cleansing

On NPR this morning Ann Garrelts(sp?) reported a terrifying new element in the Iraqi civil war, armed Shia men going house to house in Baghdad looking for Sunnis. She also reports that there are incidents of Shias protecting and hiding Sunnis from these armed gangs, so it's not across the board, and no real idea how widespread, but....

This is a very significant development in the conditions there. Often, you'll hear some of the armchair "military experts" on the CNN, or on the MSNBC, opining that perhaps the best solution is to simply segment Iraq into it's three ethnic sections. That's quite an ideal solution were the situation on the ground that clean.

The large cities of Iraq, and the regions themselves, do have majority populations, but they are not 100% anything. In the fragmentation model, there would have to be significant ethnic cleansing with varying levels of possible violence, in order for that solution to work. Imagine large convoys of refugees marching hundreds of miles through their "enemies' territory," all their property and possessions left behind. Little food and water, a weak target for anyone who wants to attack them. Women, children, the elderly. Over a half a million from Baghdad alone?

So, whenever one of these guys comes on espousing this as America's solution in Iraq, remember just what he's talking about, just what level of human suffering he is proposing.

And, no, I don't have a solution at this point. And the Bush administration's failures are just going to make it worse. In the WaPo this morning (AP)

The number of Iraqi army battalions judged by their American trainers to be capable of fighting insurgents without U.S. help has fallen from one to none since September, Pentagon officials said yesterday.

This is all going to get so much worse. And it didn't have to be. No WMD, no connection to Al Qaeda, a war of choice sold through misrepresentation of the intelligence. This horror will be Bush's legacy.

And this all leaves out the possibility, and I stress possibility, that other nations may intervene to protect ethnic minorities with which they sympathize. Turkey stepping in to protect Turkomens in the northern Kurdish region. The Saudis or Jordan stepping in to help the Sunnis, or Iran stepping in to support the Shia, or Kuwait, or Syria.....

Question: What previous US policies have caused this level of human suffering? The Central American interventions in the 80's? Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon in Vietnam? Hoover remaining laissez faire as the depression consumed America? The extermination of the American Indians?

Just thinking out loud.