This was a good series of articles, and it documents the decisions that made (good and bad) in Iraq. What it misses is the angle of Tribalism that pervades the culture of the middle east - my family, my clan, my tribe over all others.

This is the reason that the army and Baathist civil service was disbanded - would you really want a minority Sunni officer corps running the army? or a government run by primarily ex-Baathist officals with no loyality?

Looking back, what should have been done was to disband the army - but Pay the men as a "provisional" service to be reformed in the future. Now that the ministries have been taken over by the factions - distributing all the jobs, money and positions to their cronies and relatives, there is little to do but start over.

What has devolved in Iraq is a new political order - parties with supporting militias for muscle fighting over control of their section of the country. Sadr and his Iranian backers trying to muscle the Hawza into control over the Shia south, The Kurds and their Pesmerga in control of the north, the Sunnis fighting to regain their lost power (and some oil near Kirkuk) and the Jihadis trying to get everyone to kill everyone (Shias being the preferred target).

"Reality" based policy at this point would be to chose sides in this free for all and go after the militias of the other side and eliminate them. Unless these private armies are stamped out, there will be no freedom in Iraq. Mr Al-Sadrs crew seems the most logical group to take out first - this time with their leader as the main target. (as should have been done two years ago).

One other comment - I see too many people take a one dimensional view of the middle east as just being an oil pump (it's all about oil). I assure you that the people of this region really do want a life like everyone else - and I find it amazing that the comparison to the civil rights struggle has never been made in relation to freeing these people from the abysmal governments of the region.

But then, we can have the stability of the "progressive" Chinese situation in Darfur where we all just look the other way where people are slaughtered - because there, it is all about oil.

To start, I do care about many of the people in the Middle East - because at least some of them are decent, hard working people that just want to live a life where they get a little control in their lives, and don't worry that a misspoken word gets them and their family in trouble. I know - I have lived there for a few decades and have seen people that I know "disappear" (fortunately they were eventually released). On the other hand, this area also is home to some of the most vile and evil people on this planet - who believe that a good power drill to the head is a fitting way to establish control (when you rationalize that the other guy is a heretic or a non-believer, whatever you do has no sin). These nice people fired Scuds near the town I lived in, so you could say in some way, I might have formed some strong opinions about them.

When I hear that people were not prepared for Iraq - that is correct, but not in the sense that most people think. Prepared means that you were willing to excise the cancer that has inflicted this society. People that use car bombs and suicide belts do not respond to rational dialog. You do to them what they would do to you - eliminate them. And if you were not willing or able or prepared to do that when you went in - then you were woefully unprepared. Read this as brutal, but it is true - if you think that the people that fed people to paper shredders are going to change, you have got to be delusional.

Before I get accused of being a total psycho - I assure you, I am not. I am just stating the very unfortunate reality of brutality of some elements in Iraq. And unless someone comes down -hard - on the groups that are tearing Iraq apart - you are going to see a repeat of the chaos that occurred when India was partitioned. (except this will be 3 ways) So I say - choose who we want to support and take the plunge - it can't get worse.

And we come back to oil - oil is the biggest curse that ever happened to most countries that have it - the corruption, the total destruction of "normal" work ethics and the waste that it generates - waste in not investing in the things that make societies work in the long term. I do not doubt that guaranteeing the supply of oil for the world (it is fungible you know - it does not have to come from one place, just the supply has to meet demand). But it gets paid for - but where the cash goes is another issue.