It would be difficult to ignore the stories of growing sectarian violence in Iraq between Sunnis (many former Saddam loyalists) and Shiite Mahdi Army led by Moqtada al-Sadr.
If so many innocent people didn't get caught in the crossfire, there would almost be a sense of justice in letting these two bands of thugs and murderers kill each other.
But the larger issue here is the future of Iraq. The last thing the world, let alone most Iraqis want, is a return of Saddam style government or that of a new Taliban led by Sadr.
We've done a fair job of keeping the Al Queda terrorists on the run, as well as containing the Sunni Saddamists. What we have failed to do is neutralize the Mahdi Army and capture Sadr, who is wanted on murder charges for the death of an opponent (excellent background piece in Newsweak.)
In 2004 US troops surrounded the Imam Ali shrine in Najaf and ripped the Mahdi army to shreds. They did the same in Karbala. But they were stopped from arresting Sadr by the then Iraqi Governing Council some of whose members threatened to resign if Sadr were arrested.
A "Hezbollah" in Iraq?
Reports this week suggest that both Iran and Syria have been facilitating training of Mahdi Army militia members at Hezbollah camps in Lebanon. The last thing that Iraq or the Middle East needs is another armed extremist state within a state with Iran pulling the strings.
It's a shame we didn't take the smaller risk involved in settling this problem earlier when we had Sadr and the Mahdi Army surrounded in Najaf. Surely, the cost now in lives, not to mention the risk to the entire Iraqi enterprise is much greater because of inaction.
The lesson here is: Do the hard thing now before things get worse.
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