Today's Washington Post:
The U.S. military said on Thursday it launched its biggest air offensive in Iraq since the 2003 invasion to root out insurgents near a town where recent violence raised fears of civil war.Reactions in the Tinkerbell-based community are predictably triumphal, ranging from 'hooah!' to 'it's about time'.
Think about that for a moment...think about living in a reality where the largest fucking air offensive since the invasion is a positive thing. Where this is the beginning of the end for the insurgents, not a drastic response to a rapidly deteriorating security situation.
Think about it, and then read this article from yesterday's Chronicle:
Ordinary Iraqi Families Getting Ready to Fight"Signs of a hopeful future", indeed.
....
Few Iraqis...share Bush's view that the crisis has been averted. They are readying themselves for the worst, fleeing likely flash points, stockpiling weapons and basic foodstuffs, barricading their neighborhoods, and drawing lines in the sand delineating Sunni and Shiite territory.
Since the golden dome of a revered Shiite shrine in Samarra was reduced to rubble last month, the country's long-simmering sectarian feud has flared into the open with unprecedented brutality.
In the wake of that attack, a series of sectarian reprisals has left hundreds of ordinary Iraqis dead and dozens of mosques ransacked. Daily execution-style killings and car bombings continue. On Sunday, multiple car bombs killed scores. The bodies of scores more, many bound and garroted, have been discovered around Baghdad since Monday. The capital's hospitals overflow with the wounded. Meanwhile, the country's politicians remain deadlocked in negotiations to form a government based on the outcome of elections more than three months ago.
....
Meanwhile, Iraqis are stockpiling arms, preparing to defend themselves in the event of a full-scale civil war. Arms dealers say that the supplies of guns for sale -- once as common as date trees and kebab stands -- have largely dried up.
[That's all, folks]
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