Shiites Rout Sunni Families in Mixed Area of Baghdad

NYT reported Bands of armed Shiite militiamen stormed through a neighborhood in north-central Baghdad on Saturday, driving hundreds of Sunni Arabs from their homes in what a Sunni colonel in the Iraqi Army described as one of the most flagrant episodes of sectarian warfare yet unleashed in the capital.

It is the presence of the bands of armed Shiite militia, and also the bands of armed Sunni militias that are causing most of the problems, and the ISG thinking they can solve that problem by partitioning Iraq into three separate regions is foolish. We have got to take down both militias. There are many pushing for an immediate withdrawal of forces from Iraq. Bush should take advantage of that pressure, and tell Prime Minister Ayad Allawi that if he does not give us the greenlight to take out Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army, and also do the same with the Sunni Militias, then Bush is going to do what the Surrender Monkeys want, and Cut and Run. Allawi is reluctant to let him do that, because he needs Sadr's votes to stay in office, but Bush should tell Kurdish President: Jalal Talabani that he should make certain that all of the Kurdish factions back Allawi, at least in the short term. If Sadr's people want to pull out of the government, we should let them do that, and then distribute most of the 6 ministries they hold, and most of the 30 seats in Parliment to the Kurds, but give a few to the Sunnis to show them that they can gain more power by working with the other groups than by killing members of the other groups.

The officer, Lt. Col. Abdullah Ramadan al-Jabouri, said that more than 100 Sunni families, many with very young children, had left the Hurriya neighborhood aboard a convoy of trucks and cars under cover of the nightly curfew. Government officials tried to urge the families to return by promising army protection, but could not persuade them.

The army will not be able to protect them as long as the militias remain armed. Our troops are not good at policing a civil war, but if you turn them loose and let them kill the armed militias, then the Iraqi army and police can do their jobs.