A Genocide In The Making*

As bad as things in Iraq are, and they are bad, they are potentially going to get much, much worse. Dozens of bodies are already turning up every single day, totured and mutilated. Sunni-Shi'ite clashes, Iraq's civil war that Bush says isn't a civil war, is raging unabated. And I fear we're just seeing the proverbial tip of the iceberg. I think we're going to see a genocide in Iraq much like the one going on in Darfur, much like the one that ravaged Rwanda. I shudder to think how many people are going to die.

Radical Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr announced that he will pull the members of his bloc out of Iraq's Parliament should Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki meet with Bush in Jordan as scheduled. Should al-Sadr follow through with his threat, the Iraqi Parliament will utterly collapse. Followers of al-Sadr occupy many of the key Cabinet spots within the Parliament and they are angry over the rash of bombings that killed over 200 people in Sadr City last Thursday. Hareth al-Dari, a Sunni cleric has declared Iraq's "unity government" dead, has called for Arab nations to withdraw support for the Shi'ite-led government of Iraq and said that US troops are complicit in the sectarian violence, that they've given cover to Shi'ite death squads.

"The occupying forces have been giving cover to the militias and criminal gangs," Dhari said.

al-Sadr's followers seized control of Iraqi State-run television on Saturday and promptly labeled all Sunni's "terrorists" while calling Shi'ites to arms. The two hour broadcast, which included a few members of al-Sadr's parliamentary bloc, among other things, gave out the names and addresses of prominent Sunni's they want executed. They promised reprisals for the attacks in Sadr City. al-Sadr's Mahdi Army controls large areas of Baghdad already and he has followers deeply entrenched in the Iraqi Security Forces. Members of the Mahdi Army claimed that they were distributing police uniforms throughout Shi'ite neighborhoods to allow them free movement and access to all areas. This has all the markings of a massive genocide in the making. This is exactly how the killings in Rwanda began, with lists of names being read over the airwaves. Over a million died there, how many will be killed in Iraq?

Militia leaders told supporters yesterday to prepare for a fresh wave of incursions into Sunni neighborhoods that would begin as soon as the curfew ends tomorrow, according to Sadr City residents.

Bush has no intention of canceling the meeting between he and Maliki despite al-Sadr's threats and the looming specter of an Iraqi genocide. Nor does he have any intention of getting our troops out of harm's way. Bush declared today that US troops would be staying in Iraq until the "job was finished." My question is, what job are they supposed to be finishing, George? Is the "job" getting every last service man and woman stationed in Iraq killed? Our troops are caught in between two factions that, as much as they hate each other, hate them even more. Sunni and Shi'ite alike see US Occupation Forces as the key reason for so many of their troubles. They'll be getting shot at from all sides and there will be no safe haven in Iraq for our troops, stuck in an impossible situation.

The violence in Iraq, as bad as it has been, is about to get so much worse. Pandora's Box is about to be opened. Tens of thousands of people, American and Iraqi alike, have already died as a direct result of Bush's Foreign Policy decisions. And with a massive genocide looming, how many more are going to be killed?

~Kevin S.

*Ha! I'm not the only one who compares Rwanda with Iraq. ~ Lila