Sunni and Shi'ite United!

At long last the Sunni and Shi'ite peoples of Iraq have found common ground, something they fully agree on. It's all the Americans fault.

Okay, so perhaps that should read 'Americans and their allies', since several countries have taken part in (mis)handling the situation in Iraq, but the sheer weight of American numbers (not just the troops but the companies tasked with rebuilding the country) present and very visible presumably paints the whole mess in a very stars-and-stripes pattern to the general population.

A leading Shi'ite cleric from Najaf, Sheikh Ali Mirza Asada, states that "the roots of our problems lie in the mistakes of the Americans committed right from the beginning of their occupation", a position that his Sunni counterpart, Sheikh Harith Al-Dhari, seems to concur with. Despite the fact that he is currently a fugitive in Cairo having been accused by the predominantly Shi'ite government as a supporter of terrorism, he sings in harmony with his exilers - "Since the beginning the US occupation Iraq from bad to worse" [sic].

Whatever you may believe about the original intentions of 'liberating' Iraq the simple facts are that since the war 'ended' US troop deaths per day have increased, civilian deaths per day have increased even more, and neither statistic shows any sign of slowing down. We may not hear about bombs going off on the news any more, but that's simply because they have become so fucking commonplace that it's dull news.

What is the solution for Iraq? I'm buggered if I know. But one thing I'm certain of is that this isn't it. And when someting so consistently fails to yield results for such a long time surely the only ones who would refuse to change tack would be the imbeciles of the world. Isn't that right, Messers Bush and Cheney...?

Cheers m'dears!