Freedom is on the march

The following is a very revealing, and disturbing, video illustrating what is taking place in Baghdad (h/t Andrew Sullivan). The first part shows an almost exclusively Shiite group of Iraqi Army troops administering to handcuffed Sunnis what the watching, cheering American troops giddily refer to as the "Rodney King treatment." The second part documents various neighborhoods that were previously mixed with Sunnis and Shiites but which now are almost exclusively cleansed one way or the other:



And this morning's Guardian has an article featuring a "commander" of a Shiite militia (the Madhi Army) which earns great profit kidnapping and slaughtering Sunnis (even if their families pay ransom). The commander and his comrades "describe an intimate relationship with Iraqi security services, especially the commandos of the Iraqi interior ministry." They frequently go on their kidnapping and murder missions with security forces along for the ride, subordinate to the militia commanders.

So the best case scenario in Iraq -- what we achieve in the extremely unlikely circumstance that we accomplish our current, stated goals -- is to strengthen a government dominated by Shiite death squads and/or Iran.