It was only a week ago that John Podhoretz wondered if the big tactical mistake we made in Iraq was that we didn’t kill enough Sunnis in the early going to intimidate them.” As he put it: “Wasn’t the survival of Sunni men between the ages of 15 and 35 the reason there was an insurgency and the basic cause of sectarian violence now?”
And now the New York Times reports today: “Four American soldiers from an Army combat unit that killed three Iraqis in a raid in May testified Wednesday that they had received orders from superior officers to kill all the military-age men they encountered.” Anyone who thinks that excessive bloodhsed is the “solution” to Iraq should read this post by Dan Nexon. Just because the Roman Empire could be maintained through genocide doesn’t mean the American empire can. The horrific possibility is that some military officers may be starting to think along the same lines as Podhoretz. Which is another indication, if we needed one, that there’s absolutely no reason to stay in Iraq any longer.
