Ethnic Cleansing

Silly me, but I thought this was the sort of thing we were in Iraq to prevent? Shiites Rout Sunni Families in Mixed Area of Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Dec. 9 — Bands of armed Shiite militiamen stormed through a neighborhood in north-central Baghdad on Saturday, driving hundreds of Sunni Arabs from their homes in what a Sunni colonel in the Iraqi Army described as one of the most flagrant episodes of sectarian warfare yet unleashed in the capital.

The officer, Lt. Col. Abdullah Ramadan al-Jabouri, said that more than 100 Sunni families, many with very young children, had left the Hurriya neighborhood aboard a convoy of trucks and cars under cover of the nightly curfew. Government officials tried to urge the families to return by promising army protection, but could not persuade them.

snip

The role of American troops in the turmoil was unclear. The Sunni cleric, Sayed Muhammad, said appeals for assistance from the First Cavalry Division, its headquarters about three miles southwest of Hurriya, had gone unanswered. But Colonel Jabouri said Iraqi commanders had told the Americans there was no need for their help. A First Cavalry Division spokesman said American advisers with Iraqi troops in Hurriya had reported only one instance of sectarian trouble, when Iraqi troops assisted a Shiite family under threat from Sunnis.(My emphasis added.)

I'm not sure what's going on here- are we ignoring the violence that's happening? Are Iraqi commanders on the ground asking for help but the Shiite commanders from the top not passing the appeals on?

Whatever the answer is, we're not stopping anything. Everyday car bombs go off, more soldiers and civilians die, and our wise men natter on about the politics of the whole thing. It's appalling.