More Bad News Out of Iraq
New death squads, same tactics

Hopes for success of the new Iraqi government dimmed even more with the exsposure of "death squads" among the nation's security forces. See Shiite Squads in Iraqi Police Force Are Linked to Killings in the LATimes:

Shiite Muslim militia members have infiltrated Iraq's police force and are carrying out sectarian killings under the color of law, according to documents and scores of interviews.

The abuses raise the specter of organized retaliation to attacks by Sunni-led insurgents that have killed thousands of Shiites, who endured decades of subjugation under Saddam Hussein.

[ . . . .]

In recent months, hundreds of bodies have been discovered in rivers, garbage dumps, sewage treatment facilities and alongside roads and in desert ravines. Many of them are thought to be victims of Sunni insurgents, who are known to target Shiite civilians and Iraqi security forces, and even Sunni Arabs believed to be collaborating with U.S. forces or the Iraqi government. But increasingly, the Shiite militias operating within the national police force are also suspected of committing atrocities.

The Baghdad morgue reports that dozens of bodies arrive at the same time on weekly basis, including scores of corpses with wrists bound by police handcuffs.

Whether we agree on the rationale for this war, I'm sure everyone hopes that the end result will be a stable Iraq, with at least basic rights for all citizens. The quagmire should have been expected in a nation that was artificially created with three separate ethnic/religious peoples held together only by dictatorship. It seems to me that we need more diplomats and negotiators than more troops. There can not be a military victory in this war no matter how long we stay.