A religion of peace

A doctor in the northern city of Kirkuk has admitted to killing at least 35 Iraqi police officers and Army soldiers by giving them lethal injections.

I guess they don't take the Hypocratic Oath there.

Then there's this from Strategypage:

Deaths from revenge killings now exceed those from terrorist or anti-government activity. Al Qaeda is beaten, and running for cover. The Sunni Arab groups that financed thousands of attacks against the government and coalition groups, are now battling each other, al Qaeda, and Shia death squads. It's not civil war, for there are no battles or grand strategies at play. It's not ethnic cleansing, yet, although many Sunni Arabs are, and have, fled the country. What's happening here is payback. Outsiders tend to forget that, for over three decades, a brutal Sunni Arab dictatorship killed hundreds of thousands of Kurds and Shia Arabs. The surviving victims, and the families of those who did not survive, want revenge. They want payback. And even those Kurds Shia Arabs who don't personally want revenge, are inclined to tolerate some payback. Since the Sunni Arabs comprise only about 20 percent of the population, and no longer control the police or military, they are in a vulnerable position.

After Saddam's government was ousted three years ago, the Sunni Arabs still had lots of cash, weapons, and terrorist skills. Running a police state is basically all about terrorizing people into accepting your rule. For the last three years, the Sunni Arabs thought they could terrorize their way back into power. Didn't work.

Iraq was once quite a modern nation, but Saddam's reign seems to have knocked the people back to their old tribal system. I guess it's too much to hope for that they'd forget all the savagery done under Saddam.

Bill Roggio has a report on the confrontation of U.S. troops with the Mahdi Army.