Tom Hayden: Stop The Dirty War...A Time For Congressional Hearings

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http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/04/301/

Stop The Dirty War

Why Should American Blood and Taxes Be Spent on Propping Up a Sectarian Shi’a State Engaged in Ethnic Cleansing and Daily Human Rights Abuses?

A Time For Congressional Hearings
by Tom Hayden

The time has come to understand the new de facto US policy in Iraq: to support, fund, arm and train a sectarian Shi’a-Kurdish state, one engaged in ethnic cleansing, mass detention and murder of Sunni Arabs.

If this description seems harsh, it is only because our minds are crowded with false or outdated paradigms. First was the dream of Baghdad as an exemplary democratic domino. Then the kumbaya notion of a unitary neo-liberal state with proportional representation and revenue-sharing among Shi’a, Kurds and Sunnis. All along, the US has described itself as a neutral arbiter among warring factions, a promoter of the rule of law and human rights in the Iraqi jungle.

Even as former US ambassador Khalilzad left Baghdad, he was struggling to clinch deals over oil revenue-sharing, reversal of de-Baathification laws, and inclusion of Sunni interests in constitutional reform and local governance. The Shi’a, muttering that Khalilzad was a Sunni apologist, seemed uninterested in anything but window-dressing reforms.

Whether by accident or design, the reality since 2006 is that the Shi’a, with Kurdish approval, are carrying out a sectarian war against the Sunni population with American dollars and trainers.

Critics, commentators and Congressional members concerned about Iraq must shed past illusions to focus on this new reality.

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