Alertnet| US Accuses Shiites of Faking Massacre.

Obviously this story could be one of several things. Here’s one that I think will be preferred by one segment of our readership - things happened basically like the US military said they did, and the Shiite political leadership is trying to frame the US military for a massacre that didn’t occur. There’s another that will probably be preferred by a different segment of the readership - things happened basically like the Iraqis said they did, and the US military is full of shit.

I’m agnostic on that question; we really don’t have any information beyond he-said, she-said. But the problem in this case with the wingnut-preferred story (which once again could easily be 100% accurate) is that if that’s the explanation, that’s really, really bad news for the US occupation of Iraq. The Shiites are our only allies in the main, populated, actually war-torn part of Iraq. If their leadership is really trying to frame us for massacring people, that’s a bad sign, right?

I think before we actually hear the crazy convoluted contortions that will be required of those who want to conclude that the Shiites are framing the US military for a massacre without also concluding that things have taken a monstrous turn for the worse in Iraq, we should all take a large step back and agree that anyone who takes this position, no matter what flashy justification he provides for taking it, is probably either lying or howlingly, barkingly stupid.

Keep in mind this happens on the very day in which Juan Cole noted ominously that strange things are afoot at the Circle K. I don’t know any better than he does what this means, but I think prolly it ain’t good:

Then the US and Iraqi forces say they raided a terror cell in Adhamiyah. Adhamiyah is a Sunni district of Baghdad and is still Baath territory.

But somehow the joint US-Iraqi force ended up north, at the Shiite Shaab district. They say that they took fire from Mahdi Army militiamen. But there aren’t any such Mahdi Army men in Adhamiyah. I have a sinking feeling that instead of raiding a Sunni Arab building in Adhamiyah, they got disoriented and attacked a Shiite religious center in nearby Shaab instead. Iraqi television angrily showed twenty unarmed corpses on the floor of the religious center, denouncing the US for killing innocent worshippers. The US military is now saying it did not enter any mosques and that anyone killed was killed by Iraqi special ops.

The Mustafa Husayniyah, however, is not a mosque and may not have been distinguishable as a religious edifice to non-Shiites. Shiites mourn their martyred Imams, the descendants of the Prophet, in centers called Husayniyahs after the Imam Husayn, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad. As for the killing being done by Iraqi troops, if it was a joint mission, then the US forces are going to take some of the blame.

At least one of the dead was a member of the Dawa Party, the party headed by Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari. Official Iraqi television coverage was also uncharacteristically anti-American.

One thing BRT sort of hinted at in comments many posts ago is that he doesn’t get why we think it’s bad if there’s a civil war in Iraq while US forces are occupying the country. Well, one reason is that in Iraq, a civil war is going to be extremely confusing for Westerners. Mistakes will be made. Mistakes will mount. Enough mistakes and the US becomes just another faction fighting for its life, fighting for resources, fighting for land.

And in the end, of course, fighting for nothing. Such is the tragedy of war. Those who love war (talking not just about wingnuts now, but all those wonderful liberal hawks too, the Ken Baer’s and the George Packers and the Josh Micah Marshalls) can never see it. They never understand why we crazy liberals seem opposed to war simply because it’s war, and for no other reason. Such softheadedness. Such unseriousness.

You folks refused to look at history, so here it is again, one more time, for the cheap seats. Gaze upon what you have wrought. Look at it, really look. May God have mercy upon you.

This entry by Ape Man was posted on Monday, March 27th, 2006 at 8:48 pm and is filed under Iraq. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.