While Nero fiddled...

The Bush administration likes to reassure us that they are training Iraqi troops to take over security operations when/if we begin to pull out. However, they are deluding themselves, not only in their level of success but in what those those troops have in mind for themselves: many are positioning themselves for the civil war to come.

The soldiers said that while they wore Iraqi army uniforms they still considered themselves members of the Peshmerga -- the Kurdish militia -- and were awaiting orders from Kurdish leaders to break ranks. Many said they wouldn't hesitate to kill their Iraqi army comrades, especially Arabs, if a fight for an independent Kurdistan erupted.

Certainly the Kurds aren't the only ones using the instability and access to resources to advance their tribal, religious, or ethnic interests. We could leave a bloodbath in our wake . . .