BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- At least 21 people were killed Saturday in Iraq, including nearly a dozen members of a family believed to be Shiite, as authorities imposed an extended curfew to prevent sectarian violence from spiraling into civil war.
So the lockdown will continue, and there is even now talk of deploying tanks into the streets to help keep the peace. With every hour that the revenge attacks continue to occur, the odds of a full blown open civil war go up.
And our nations hopes for departure, as defined by George Bush (They stand up so we can stand down) have taken another hit.
The performance of Iraq's security forces is also under scrutiny. The coalition has long portrayed the new Iraqi Army as a viable future alternative to US and British troops, but its behaviour since Wednesday has raised questions.{emphasis mine}
Why did it take almost 12 hours to set up checkpoints after the morning bomb attack? Why were bands of militiamen in lorries and pickups allowed to move freely about the city, killing Sunnis? Why were some Iraqi soldiers seen cheering on the death squads?
In a moment of classic irony, today the pentagon is reporting improvement in the combat ability of the Iraqi army.
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Iraq
2 comments:
At this point we have two chioces We can stay forever or accept a full blown civil war and failed state
As it is defined today Iraq will never exist as a independent nation
Improvement is encouraging and all, but this violence indicates that the Iraqi army is unprepared for civil war. And even if it were, Iraqi security forces seem almost to be hopeless compromised by the Shiite militias.
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