"The west... broke (it)"

In a Monday editorial on the left-leaning Guardian Unlimited (UK) web site, Gary Younge lays all blame for the sectarian kidnapping/ torturing/ murdering/ bombing/ killing/ burning/ genocide/ displacement and general violent mayhem carried out by both Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias right now in Iraq at the feet of the coalition nations who invaded and occupy her --

"It is absurd to suggest that the Iraqis - who have been invaded, whose country is currently occupied, who have had their police and army disbanded and their entire civil service fired - could possibly be in a position to take responsibility for their future and are simply not doing so."

In that condemnation, he agrees with the very folks doing the drilling in foreheads of other Iraqis, the shooting in the streets of Iraqi hairdressers, the kidnapping and torture and killing of Iraqi college students, the indiscriminate lobbing of mortar shells into Iraqi residential neighborhoods, the sending out of death squads in Iraqi police uniforms, and the bombing of Iraqi mosques of the wrong sect --

"For a start, it implies that the occupation is a potential solution when it is in fact the problem. This seems to be one of the few things on which Sunni and Shia leaders agree. 'The roots of our problems lie in the mistakes the Americans committed right from the beginning of their occupation,' Sheik Ali Merza, a Shia cleric in Najaf and a leader of the Islamic Dawa party, told the Los Angeles Times last week. 'Since the beginning, the US occupation drove Iraq from bad to worse,' said Harith al-Dhari, the nation's most prominent Sunni cleric, after he fled to Egypt this month facing charges of supporting terrorism."

In siding with those who encourage the fratricidal violence, Younge states his main point -- "In short, it [coalition leaders blaming Iraqis for their own violence against their fellow Iraqis] makes the victims responsible for the crime."

I don't happen to agree with Younge's 'logic' here. Nevertheless, I appreciated this statement from Younge's commentary -- "Iraq... has been trashed by a foreign invader. The troops must go. But the west has to leave enough resources behind to pay for what it broke."

What it broke. I like that phrasing. It puts down in posterity what Jeremiah said would be said about Babylon -- "Babylon has fallen and been broken..." (Jer. 51:8).

It is certainly broken. And Gary is "wail(ing) over her," demanding we "bring balm for her pain (so) perhaps she may be healed" (Jer. 51:8). But she will not be healed. Our only option now is to "forsake her and let us each go to his own country..." (Jer. 51:9).