Tuesday, February 28, 2006

About that civil war...

When the Golden Mosque in Samarra was destroyed, we were told civil war was imminent. Well, it's been imminent for the past two years.

Now, William F. Buckley has joined the "realist" crowd, saying Iraqis may just not be civilizable. We can understand freedom and liberty, and we can live under a rule of law, but there's no point in trying to impose either on Arab culture.

Mr. Buckley's pessimism may be premature. Both Sunni and Shia religious leaders have called for calm. The Moqtada al Sadr, whose militia was in the forefront of the retaliatory attacks on Sunni mosques, prayed publicly Saturday with the Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars. Thousands of ordinary Sunnis and Shias joined together in half a dozen Iraqi cities to demonstrate for peace.
These peaceful demonstrations for peace drew little attention from a news media that is eager to report on a civil war, even if it isn't happening.

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