Death Squads

Reuters/Helmiy al-Azawi

Via CNN and TIME Magazine, a horrific story about organized ethnic cleansing:Ethnic Cleansing in a Baghdad Neighborhood?

U.S. soldiers have uncovered evidence that one Shi'ite militia is engaged in a systematic campaign of violence and intimidation to clear out Sunni residents

Posted Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2006
The place was empty when U.S. soldiers burst in, raiding a house in Baghdad's violent Washash neighborhood in the hopes of finding killers involved in sectarian murders. By the look of things, no one had been there for some time, even though neighbors in the area reported seeing people dragged inside in recent weeks. But apparently someone involved in the area's sectarian violence had been there recently: left behind was a leather-bound day planner that gave a disturbing picture of the systematic nature of Baghdad's bloodshed.

Though the book was largely blank, inside were several sheets of loose paper covered in Arabic writing. Back at Camp Taji, a massive U.S. Army base north of Baghdad, translators sifted through the papers and found evidence backing up what some U.S.troops who patrol Washash have come to suspect — that Shi'ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army are conducting what amounts to an ethnic cleansing campaign in Washash, a predominantly Shi'ite area with pockets of Sunni residents.

Sadr's militia, the document suggests, are systematically driving Sunni families from their homes around Washash, which some U.S. troops who patrol there have taken to calling Little Sadr City. Among the papers found in the raid is a list of 65 houses around Washash where Shi'ite families have replaced Sunni families. On other pages were drafts of threat letters clearly intended for delivery to Sunni homes. And there was a roster of "virtuous families" in the Washash area with house numbers written next to their names, so the militia relocation agents could keep track of people deemed fit to stay.

"They're very well organized," said Capt. Johnny Sutton, whose troops head up U.S. patrols in Washash.

Yes, I'll bet they are. And yet we had the commander of US troops in Iraq, General Pace, telling us yesterday that Iraq, "was NOT awash in sectarian violence."

Sectarian violence. What a neutered term. Let's call it what it is, ethnic cleansing. And when we've got the terminology right, let's go the rest of the way and admit that we, America, made this possible.

The United States broke a sovereign nation, resulting in the horrific deaths of thousands. I, like Billmon, am willing to accept responsibility for the horrid actions taken in my name.

Too bad the president is unwilling to do the same.

2:13 pm update: Apparently I spoke too soon. The preznit said he takes full responsibility for the war in his presser this morning. Buck stops here on Iraq: Bush. Unfortunately, he then went on to say that americans should return the people who rubberstamped that failure back to congress. Presumably so they could fail miserably some more.

I think we'll pass on that scenario, if it's all right with you, Mr. Preznit.