If the British and other European great powers had sent expeditionary armies to stop the enormous casualties and vast destruction of the American civil war, they could have prevented the eventual emergence of a peacefully united republic, perpetuating North-South hostility. That is the mistake that the U.S. and its allies are now making by interfering with Iraq's civil war. They should disengage their troops from populated areas as much as possible, give up the intrusive checkpoints and patrols that are failing to contain the violence anyway and abandon the futile effort to build up military and police forces that are national only in name. Some U.S. and allied forces still will be needed in remote desert bases to safeguard Iraq from foreign invasion, with some left to hold the Baghdad Green Zone. But for the rest, strict noninterference should be the rule. The sooner the Kurds, Sunni, Shiites, Turkmen and smaller minorities can define their own natural and stable boundaries within which they feel safe, the sooner the violence will come to an end. Iraq's civil war is no different from the British, Swiss or American internal wars. It too should be allowed to bring peace.

The massacre at Baqouba in north-east Iraq was a particularly bloody episode in the country's savage sectarian war. Those killed were Shia, along with two Kurds - the killers spared four passengers who were Sunnis.

only seems to report the bad news.

I think one of Luttwak's points is that it's going to happen (in fact is happening now) anyway whether US forces are there or not.

Yeah, I could fill pages of each week's update with exploits. Exploits like Echo Company conducting a night helo assault in Black Hawk Helicopters in 1% illumination, striking the Landing Zone at the exact minute as planned, capturing 3 known terrorists and locating 14 artillery shells primed and prepared to be IEDs, just waiting to be buried on the side of the road...and all done in a darkness so black you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, and with a precision that would make any "special forces" unit envious. Yeah, I could talk about exploits like the Engineers and Mobile Strike Teams from Weapons Company moving in the middle of the night and establishing an obstacle fortress at a suspected enemy ambush site that would make the makers of the Infiltration Course at Quantico as jealous as a jilted lover. Yeah, I could talk about Fox Company who this week entertained both street workers and A CANDIDATE FOR PUBLIC OFFICE WHO CAMPAIGNED IN YUSUFIYAH, a town so under the control of the terrorists and without MNF presence three months ago that people did not venture from their homes!!! Yeah, I could talk about Golf Company, their never-ending identification and detention of terrorists in a previous hotbed at a rate three times what they should realistically be able to accomplish with their combat power. Yeah, I could talk about the Marines of H&S who work 16-18 hour days and also provide some of the most stellar and demanding security duties you can imagine. Yeah, I could talk about all of that, but all I would be doing is adding to the layers of such stories that you are innundated with everyday from the national media. OH YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT, THEY RARELY TALK ABOUT THOSE KIND OF EXPLOITS! No, they would rather tell you about every single IED or SVBIED that detonates. They would rather tell you that Iraq is overrun with insurgents. They would rather tell you that all is lost and hopeless and the only victory is in how soon we can get out of Iraq. Well, I refuse to "tow that line." I refuse to tow that line because it is misrepresentation at best, and these American HEROES deserve better. The other part of the media misrepresentation that really agitates me, now that you have spun me up, is the incessant undertone that the military senior leadership is either wrong or incompetent. This one agitates me like a Whirlpool 9000 agitates laundry. (I don't really know if there is a Whirlpool 9000, but if there was it would agitate laundry really hard!) I have been fortunate to host several General Officers here at FOB St. Michael, and I can tell you, they are without a doubt the most intelligent, genuine, "lead by example" Warriors I have ever seen. They care deeply about the Soldiers and Marines, and do things for all the right reasons. Now, before I am accused of "sucking up," rest assured, I have all the chance of ever making General as my beloved Cincinnati Bengals do of winning the Super Bowl. But, to make my point, let me tell you about our most recent General visit, which occurred on Wednesday. It was from Major General Dunford, Assistant Division Commander, Fighting First Marine Division. (As a side note, if you do a web search and study the exploits of Major General Dunford as Colonel Dunford, CO, 5th Marine Regiment during OIF, you would know the quality of leader, tactician and human being we are talking about: which on all counts is the highest caliber the scale can register.) The purpose of his visit was simple: he wanted to ensure the Marines of 2/24 that despite our current Tactical Control to the United States Army, that the 1st Marine Division would ensure that when the time comes for redeployment, the 1st Marine Division stood ready to ensure all our needs were met and that our redeployment would be smooth and seamless. Now, for those with little military experience, this is not something that is even remotely required of a General Officer. And, if the General Officer does decide it is necessary, he can easily do it with a phone call or email. But no, not General Dunford. He conducted a 2 hour vehicular patrol from his FOB to ours, through high risk avenues of approach to deliver the message in person, and to get to shake some hands of the Mad Ghosts. THAT IS THE CALIBER OF OUR GENERALS.

Saddam Hussein, as brutal as he was, did manage for many years to keep the place from devolving into chaos as it has done since the US invasion, and which they have been unable to stop.

Several thousand Kurdish villages were destroyed, forcing residents to live in appalling camps. In at least 40 cases, Iraqi forces under Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, used chemical weapons to kill and chase Kurds from their villages. Then, during the Anfal campaign from February to September 1988, Iraqi troops swept through the highlands of Iraqi Kurdistan rounding up everyone who remained in government-declared "prohibited zones." Some 100,000 Kurds, mostly men and boys, were trucked to remote sites and executed. Only seven are known to have escaped. The full scope of the Anfal horror became known only after Saddam's defeat in the Gulf War. The Iraqi military's withdrawal from the region in October 1991 after the imposition of a no-fly zone made it feasible for the first time in years for outsiders to reach the area.

Authorities began digging September 1 at the site, found a year ago by the U.S. Army. Crews have excavated two grave trenches, and officials say there could be as many as 12 in the general area. Kehoe said the bodies were apparently bulldozed into the graves. "Unlike bodies that you've seen in many mass graves -- they look like cordwood -- all lined up," he said. "That didn't happen here. These bodies were just pushed in." The first trench contains the remains of women and children, and the second contains the remains of men only. More than 100 bodies have been found from the first location and a similar number from the other. Officials say it is enough to determine a pattern for the killings. Kehoe said the victims appear to be Kurds, based on the dress and the personal belongings found. He believes they were probably killed in early 1988, though it might have happened in late 1987. Many of the victims wore multiple layers of clothing and carried small personal items like jewelry and medication. One child was found with a ball in his hand. The women -- four or five of whom were pregnant -- and children appear to have been killed with a single small-caliber gunshot to the head. Some of the women were blindfolded, but Kehoe says 95 percent of the men were blindfolded and had their hands either tied to the man next to them or tied behind their back. Al-Hatra is in Nineveh province, the location of Mosul and Tal Afar. A lawyer, Kehoe also spent five years working on the Balkans War Crimes Tribunal. Kehoe said that most mass graves in Bosnia largely contained men of fighting age. Graves near Hatra included many women and children, he said. "Genocide is the attempt to eliminate, limit or exterminate a religious, ethnic, national or racial group," he said. "The Kurds are clearly a different nationality. So could it be considered genocide? It could be. Killing, ethnic cleansing, property relocations, all of those were used to try to limit the Kurdish population. What it is fundamentally is downright murder." Human rights groups believe about 300,000 people were killed during Saddam's 24-year rule, which ended when U.S.-led forces toppled his regime in 2003.

One little problem that confronts you
Got a monkey on your back
Just one more fix, lord might do the trick
One hell of a price for you to get your kicks
...
The smell of death surrounds you --That Smell

a spike in the bloodshed and fighting between Iraqis now may very well lead to less of them dying in their civil war over the long run as well, if the process is shortened rather than drawn out by the presence of American soldiers dying and being maimed trying fruitlessly to stop it.

we could be careful, slow, and methodical about easing out of iraq slowly and keep the bloodshed spike from being so profound.

making such a complete mess of the place and being responsible for the deaths of nearly half a million Iraqis

Just one more fix, lord might do the trick One hell of a price for you to get your kicks

frankly i dont see the US leaving period.

The thought is a good one, but exactly how does this happen and what makes you think our presence will necessarily avoid it.

well sir, i sure hope you're wrong.

So, ask yourself exactly what American interest is being served by the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq

So, ask yourself exactly what American interest is being served by the invasion and continued occupation of Iraq.

You dont get to do 1968 over again. Sorry chump.

perhaps if you just refrained from acting like a six year old long enough for an intelligent conversation

peal back presence over a planned period of time. i think it was done that way in vietnam...not that nam was the perfect model for war strategy but the withdrawal worked pretty well i suppose

Well, I refuse to "tow that line." I refuse to tow that line because it is misrepresentation at best, and these American HEROES deserve better.

We probably still need a small amount of troops to secure the bases and whatever interests we have over there (let's not pretend we have no interests). Aside from that, we just don't have the troop strength to prevent a civil war and frankly, it is not our job to.

Peac - Sorry about that. I wasnt thinking of you when I spouted off, but certain others who seem a little overly fixated on that period and convey a "this time we'll do it right" mentality into present, more delicate situations.

I could do one of those old John McEnroe "switch to decaf" commercials.

There ya go folks. The answer is that peacrevol finds 58,000 U.S. dead an acceptable number.

peacroval also thinks Saddam was a monster but won't explain why the U.S. coddled him and gave him the means to kill off so many thousands of people in the 1980s.

Maybe if the news crews didn't have to risk getting blown to bits every time they left the Green Zone and the Neocon folly of being greeted with flowers was true, then things would be different.

Luttwak argues that war cannot be tenderised and that attempts to moderate its destructive power in the interests of public relations are doomed to failure. The authority he invokes is none other than Clausewitz:

Long ago, Karl von Clausewitz, the supreme theoretician of war, explained why every attempt to prettify its essential violence with inconsistent acts of moderation, every refusal to use maximum force when it can be purposeful and no mere rampage, adds to the human costs of war by extending its cruelties and deprivations, and even more by delaying the arrival of the desired peace that is the only possible goal of any rational war.

Luttwak argues that, since every high building in a city is potentially a fortress or gun-turret for the enemy, high buildings must be destroyed by bombs before the army invades. In short, in order for for it to be liberated Baghdad must first be flattened. If this results in innocent civilians dying then so be it; war is not the time to engage in public relations exercises

Iraq, the most dangerous place for journalists in 2005, also became the deadliest conflict for the media in CPJ's 24-year history. A total of 60 journalists have been killed on duty in Iraq from the beginning of the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003 through the end of 2005. The toll surpasses the 58 journalists killed in the Algerian conflict from 1993 to 1996.

not the rebuilding of communities or the children given toys and food and shelter that they previously didnt have even before we went over there this time.

David Singh, a spokesman for UNICEF's Iraq Support Centre in neighbouring Jordan, said the number of acutely malnourished children had more than doubled, to 9 percent in 2005 from 4 percent in 2002, the last year of Saddam's rule.