Monday, October 23, 2006

Bush’s Clear Enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan

While the United States fights “terrorists” in Afghanistan and Iraq, the people in those countries apparently on the same side fight each other. Two weekend battles point to this “enemy confusion”.

Sunday two Afghan warlords loyal to the government fought leaving 12 people dead. Police and Afghan troops separated the hundreds of combatants armed with heavy machine guns, rocket propelled grenades and small arms. The cause of the fighting was not “immediately known”.

Two Shia factions clashed in Amarah for two days, one the Mahdi Army militia controlled by Shia cleric al-Sadr and the other local police loyal to al-Hakim’s Badr Brigades. The Iraqi military retook the city with recently withdrawn British troops on stand by.

Yes, people “on the same side” fight each other in Afghanistan and Iraq. Loyal government warlords faced off in one country while rival Shia groups gunned it out in the other. The gifts of democracy are not readily apparent in either Bush led initiative.

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