Iraqi society has been destroyed

While there has been a reduction in violence in Iraq -- now down to a level that virtually any other society in the world would find horrible and intolerable -- we must keep in mind that more than half the population of Iraq is either dead, crippled, traumatized, confined in overflowing American and Iraqi prisons, internally displaced, or in foreign exile.

Thus, the number of people available for being killers or victims is markedly reduced. Moreover, extensive ethnic cleansing has taken place in the country. Sunnis and Shiites are now living more in their own special enclaves than before, so violence of the sectarian type has also gone down.

On top of all this, US soldiers, in the face of numerous "improvised explosive devices" on the roads, have been venturing out a lot less, so the violence against our noble lads is also down.

No American should be allowed to forget that Iraqi society has been destroyed. The people of that unhappy land have lost everything -- their homes, their schools, their neighborhoods, their mosques, their jobs, their careers, their professionals, their health care, their legal system, their women's rights, their religious tolerance, their security, their past, their present, their future, their lives.

[Excerpt of an article by William Blum, author]