Not A Civil War?

The New York Times details 800 deaths in Iraq "as a result of the insurgency."

... just in January of 2006.




In another piece, the New York Times reports on Shiite torture of Sunnis to counter Sunni violence against Shiites. Oddly, the headline to the piece refers to it as "Rough Justice." Isn't that what Saddam might've referred to what he was doing?

But this leads me to speculate about another issue. Last November - I believe - Condi went to Iraq and met with some Sunni leaders in Mosul. Two days later, U.S. forces raided a jail controlled by the Interior Ministry and found over 100 maltreated prisoners including many bearing signs of torture. A furor and widespread media coverage ensued with promises from the U.S. to investigate all Iraqi detention facilities.

A couple of weeks later another prison was inspected and more evidence of torture found. But since then, I have not heard a thing regarding the nationwide inspection of detention facilities.

What happened? There was an angry pushback by the SCIRI-controlled Interior Ministry and my suspicion is that this matter has become just another false start in the Bush Administration's bumbling attempts to bring a multi-sectarian government to Iraq.