from bad to worse

Edward Wong writes for the N.Y. Times:

Since Wednesday, a groundswell of sectarian fury has roiled Iraq, leaving at least 138 people dead in the first two days and political negotiations over the new government in ruins.

The recent violence was sparked by the destruction of a revered Shiite shrine on Wednesday. True, things will likely settle down somewhat, as this cycle of violence fades. But for those optimists who hope the U.S. will be able to pull out in the near future, there's this:

American commanders have said they hope to withdraw a significant portion of the 130,000 American troops here by the end of this year, and that enough Iraqi soldiers and police officers could be trained to take over responsibility for security in many areas. Yet Iraqi forces did little to contain the violence. In at least one case in Baghdad, Iraqi witnesses said that policemen joined in attacking a mosque.

Bottom line, Iraq is a mess and it's not going to get better any time soon. There's a very good chance that we'll never see the result we want--a thriving, secular democratic government--no matter how long we stay in the region. It's very possible that even when the fighting in Iraq settles down, the result will be a government that won't be much better than Hussein's government.

Isn't that something we should have been aware of before we invaded? What happened to all of the talk about being in and out of Iraq in a month or two? Bush is a former CEO--hasn't he ever heard of due diligence?

In Iraq, it's unfortunately starting to look like finding democracy will prove to be as difficult as finding Weapons of Mass Destruction. Maybe we were looking in the wrong place all along.