The news from Iraq is not only not good, it steadily gets worse. And just when it gets as bad as one could imagine, it then proceeds to get worse. I have read a lot of military history; it's something of a hobby. And there have been wars, big and small, that were fought with an objective, with some kind of end in view. Even the Vietnam War had at least some kind of goal at some point. But this - I hesitate to say what it is - this debacle can only be compared to such vainglorious exercises as the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Victor Hugo wrote The Debacle about it. It has much of the flavor of the Iraq debacle, or as I call it, The Iraqle.
So we get the following CNN report today:
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- More than 140 bodies have been found dumped across Baghdad over the past three days, police said Wednesday.
Police said 52 bullet-riddled bodies were found Wednesday, with 20 of them blindfolded, tied up and possibly tortured.
Police also discovered 29 bodies on Tuesday and 60 on Monday.
The dead are thought to be victims of Sunni-Shiite sectarian revenge killings.
That word came as the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq issued a grim bimonthly human rights report that underscored the instability and death resulting from sectarian violence.
The report said 7,054 civilians were killed violently in September and October in Iraq, with almost 5,000 in Baghdad alone -- most of them shot to death and showing signs of torture. (see Full story at CNN.com)
It is time to start calling it the Iraq Civil War. Increasingly, the US forces are becoming irrelevant, except as target practice. Whether we are there, or whether we are not there, the bloodbath will continue. So the argument that leaving now would lead to a catastrophe seem moot. Even a year ago, I held some faint hope that the situation could be rescued. No more. It's over for us. But it is really just starting in earnest for Iraqis, and especially for the Sunnis, for our absence now spells their death warrant as the Shiite majority will fall on them and grind them down. Strange how our intiially worst enemies in Iraq became those who will suffer most by our departure. Sic semper Iraq.