The Undercount

I was almost starting to exhale, thinking that there had been a slight pull back from the brink of civil war in Iraq. I heard enough talk of unity among leaders to have a glimmer of hope. But then I read this, which suggested that nobody's listening to these leaders anymore:

Grisly attacks and other sectarian violence unleashed by last week's bombing of a Shiite shrine have killed more than 1,300 Iraqis, making the past few days the deadliest of the war outside of major U.S. offensives, according to Baghdad's main morgue. The toll was more than three times higher than the figure previously reported by the U.S. military and the news media.

Hundreds of unclaimed dead lay at the morgue at midday Monday -- blood-caked men who had been shot, knifed, garroted or apparently suffocated by the plastic bags still over their heads. Many of the bodies were sprawled with their hands still bound -- and many of them had wound up at the morgue after what their families said was their abduction by the Mahdi Army, the Shiite militia of cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

By Monday, violence between Sunnis and Shiites appeared to have eased. As Iraqi security forces patrolled, American troops offered measured support, in hopes of allowing the Iraqis to take charge and prevent further carnage.

But at the morgue, where the floor was crusted with dried blood, the evidence of the damage already done was clear. Iraqis arrived throughout the day, seeking family members and neighbors among the contorted bodies.

"And they say there is no sectarian war?" demanded one man. "What do you call this?"

Imagine 13,000 Americans killing each other in a couple weeks. Because that'd be the equivalent, from a population standpoint, to this round of violence. And the military simply has no idea what to do about it. No wonder so many of them want to get out. (why do the troops hate the troops?)

As the nation comes to grips with this failure, you're going to see a lot of recriminations, attempts to shift blame elsewhere. Whether it's time to blame the military brass or the all-powerful antiwar movement, everyone will be looking for a fall guy. thereisnospoon suggests it was a failure to care:

As we concentrate heavily on the horrible emerging violence between Sunnis and Shi'ites in Iraq, we must not forget WHY they are warring.  There's a lot more to it than religion.

It must be remembered that Sunnis and Shi'ites coexist rather peacefully throughout the rest of the Arab world.

Sectarian violence in Iraq today is an excuse to let out their frustrations with their lives...

Iraqis are rioting because 70% of them are UNEMPLOYED.

They are rioting because they have no water or electricity.  They are rioting because gasoline is ten times as expensive as it used to be.

I don't know if I completely agree with that assessment, but clearly there was a failure to care about turning Iraq into anything but a conservative/corporatocratic laboratory, complete with a 15% flat tax, massive deregulation of business, immunity for all US personnel to Iraqi law, and so on. It's really amazing what they tried to pull off. None of this worked, it inflamed the public after basic services couldn't be delivered, and as the occupation dragged on, so did anger and suffering.

This mindset is combined with a rather curious version of the flypaper strategy, which posits that as long as Muslims are killing each other, they can't kill us. To mask one's own fear with a ringing endorsement of ethnic cleansing is morally repugnant, and furthermore I don't think a regional battle between extremist factions in the Muslim world would make any part of the globe safer. There is no safety in chaos.