tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post4537873943367768764..comments2024-03-27T08:39:28.807-06:00Comments on Wash Park Prophet: The Segregation of IraqAndrew Oh-Willekehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14162253.post-66211634154169571922007-09-12T09:12:00.000-06:002007-09-12T09:12:00.000-06:00David Brooks at the New York Times notes the same ...David Brooks at the New York Times notes the same phenomena and says:<BR/><BR/>"America's best course is not to reunify Iraq, but simply to inhibit the violence as Iraqis feel their own way to partition.<BR/><BR/>What we're really trying to build, in other words, is a road to partition. We're trying to build a pathway to separation that involved the sort of low-intensity civil war that Iraq is enduring right now. We're trying to prevent a pathway that is even worse -- a high-intensity genocide. . . . given the consequences, it would be foolish to give up now. It would be foolish to weaken U.S. support for the sane sectarians just when they are trying to create a segregated yet inhabitable Iraq."<BR/><BR/>This isn't quite the spin I would put on events. Low intensity civil war doesn't seem so tame if it is in your own neighborhood, and I'm less convinced of the alleged decline in violence than Brooks.<BR/><BR/>Slogans like "The worst of the ethnic cleansing may now be over," because "Iraq's mixed neighborhoods are sliding towards extinction," are hardly inspiring either. But, Brooks has, at least, better comprehended the nature of what is going on in Iraq than most stay the course conservatives.Andrew Oh-Willekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.com