Iraq II: Ding Dong, You're Gonna Be Dead

Imagine opening the door to your row house in Chicago and finding an ominous note. It states that because your family is Catholic and Baptists are in the majority in the neighborhood, your family will be abducted and the women raped before the whole bunch of you are killed. That is, if you don't pack up and move away immediately.

It happens all the time in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq and people ignore these warnings at their own risk.

Zeyad has an disturbingly interesting roundup of threat letters at Healing Iraq.

DING DONG, YOU ARE DEAD

Who knows if Lieutenant General Amir al-Hashimi, a Defense Ministry adviser, got any warning before gunmen wearing military uniforms broke into his north Baghdad home and shot him dead. Probably not.

The general's brother is Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, the country's most prominent Sunni Arab politician, and the hit further fueled Sunni demands that the government crack down on Shiite militias.

The veep has now lost three siblings to sectarian violence.

<>Elsewhere in Baghdad, a bomb in a parked car exploded in a crowded market area in Shaab, a predominantly Shiite neighborhood, killing at least 13 and wounding 46, and authorities said they found 57 bodies in eastern and western Baghdad.

More here.

ON SECOND THOUGHT

Fareed Zakaria, the editor of Newsweek International, is a pragmatic realist as journalists go. He calls 'em as he sees 'em, but has been reluctant to throw in the towel on Iraq. Until now.

Zakaria writes that:

"When Iraq's current government was formed last April, after four months of bitter disputes, wrangling and paralysis, many voices in America and in Iraq said the next six months would be the crucial testing period. That was a fair expectation. It has now been almost six months, and what we have seen are bitter disputes, wrangling and paralysis. Meanwhile, the violence has gotten worse, sectarian tensions have risen steeply and ethnic cleansing is now in full swing. There is really no functioning government south of Kurdistan, only power vacuums that have been filled by factions, militias and strongmen. It is time to call an end to the tests, the six-month trials, the waiting and watching, and to recognize that the Iraqi government has failed. It is also time to face the terrible reality that America's mission in Iraq has substantially failed."

Meanwhile, cracks are beginning to show in Ralph Peters' resolutely rose-colored view of the war. Peters, a true hard head, has been so deep in denial that he was been able to drive through Baghdad on a day full of car bombings and suicide attacks are report that everything was hunky dory.

But Peters, writing in the New York Post, now has reservations:

"With 26 American troops dead in Iraq in the first nine days of October, the combination of bad news and pre-election politics has those on one bench arguing for bailing out immediately and those on the other bench frantic to pile on.

"Neither position is realistic. We're not going to pull out of Iraq overnight - no matter what happens in November. The 'bring the troops home now' voices always blended arch political cynicism with willful naiveté - it's always been about Bush, not Iraq.

"But remaining in Baghdad requires a new sense of reality. 'Stay the course' is meaningless when you don't have a course - and the truth is that the administration still doesn't have a strategy, just a jumble of programs, slogans and jittery improvisations."