Bush’s Iraqi “freedom”: Bloody civil war

[DonViejo]

Ten years after the US invasion began, a stable democracy in Iraq seems further away than ever

THOM HARTMANN, ALTERNET

Fighters belonging to ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria), a group linked to Al-Qaeda, have almost entirely taken over two major cities in Iraq’s Anbar province, Fallujah and Ramadi. Iraqi forces and anti-Al-Qaeda Sunni tribal leaders have retaken some parts of those cities, but the ISIS fighters are holding strong.

If it wasn’t obvious 10 years ago, it should be now: George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq was a complete and utter disaster. It has made that country a more dangerous and more violent place. A stable democracy — the kind Bush and his cronies Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz promised would come about after we knocked out Saddam — looks as far away as ever. Instead, Iraq is once again teetering on the edge of all-out civil war.

The capture of Fallujah and Ramadi by Islamic radicals caps off a year of bloodshed for Iraq. According to the United Nations, 2013 was Iraq’s deadliest year since 2008 with nearly 9,000 people killed, most of them civilians. Just last month, 759 people were killed.

Tensions between minority Sunnis and the ruling Shiite government of Nouri-Al Maliki, given new fuel by the war in neighboring Syria, have risen to a boiling point not seen since the height of Iraq’s civil war in 2006.

History, it appears, is repeating itself in the worst possible way.

more:
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/09/the_freedom_bush_touted_for_iraq_looks_more_like_bloody_civil_war_partner/