Iraq's normal state

Good thing that the Bush Administration had a well thought-out plan for dealing with the natural conditions in Iraq that created Saddam Hussein:

Shiite militiamen rampaged through a Baghdad neighborhood Sunday morning, killing more than 50 people and leaving many of the bodies littering the streets, according to Iraqi officials and witnesses. The attacks were apparently retaliation for a car bombing at a Shiite mosque the night before.

The dramatic display of sectarian killing began when armed men, some dressed in black, entered the al-Jihad neighborhood of western Baghdad. They set up checkpoints to stop cars, burst into homes, and singled out Sunni Arab residents for execution, witnesses and police said. Some of the corpses were handcuffed and pocked with bullet holes while others were pegged with nails, witnesses said.

In a country dominated by religious insanity, this is normal. Iraq is an insane asylum. Conservatives can't say this because they can't admit that our mission there is futile. Liberals can't say it because you're not supposed to call religious convictions what they are -- insane.

So every day American soldiers get maimed and killed, because our leaders can't face and express the obvious: That the invasion was a huge mistake, the occupation will never be peaceful, and we need to be the hell out of there yesterday.

Yes, if we pull out, chaos will rule Iraq, and ultimately a brutal dictator will probably emerge to keep the warring lunatics in control.

But the probable death count won't be any lower if we stay. We'll just be contributing Americans to the pile.