Iraq Thoughts of the Day

To the extent that Iraq has become less violent than it was, say, a year ago, there are two explanations:

1) we are essentially paying off most of our enemies (the Sunni militias who used to be insurgents)

2) much of the ethnic cleansing has already been done, and there are less conflicts and killings as a result

Even if Iraq were to become a blossoming peaceful democratic republic in the next few months, the previous five years were no less of a tragedy.