The Grapes of Warlord Wrath
According to the Associated Press (AP), gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms burst into the home of a Sunni Arab sheik Wednesday, killing him, three of his sons and a son-in-law. The sheik, who lived on the outskirts of Baghdad, was the leader of a branch of the Dulaimi tribe, one of the biggest in Iraq. Police said the attack may have been aimed at discouraging members of the minority from participating in next month's election.
What’s going on (my view) is only peripherally associated with the elections, but is mainly the opening salvos of all-out war between warlords who intend to run the country according to their power bases. In War With Iraq Is Not the Problem, a piece I wrote in September, 2002, some eight months before we attacked Iraq, I suggested:
“Iraq is a warlord society, as is Afghanistan. Saddam Hussein, much as we dislike him and wish him to be otherwise, is the Tito of Iraq, the only man capable of the power to keep Iraq’s warlords in check. He’s done it brutally, efficie…