Opinion (David Brooks): Reality check -- Iraq won’t be forced into a unified nation

Picture the person you love most in the world. Now imagine that person shredded by a bomb or dropped off one morning in the gutter with holes drilled through the back of the head. Imagine your lifelong rage, and the terror of not knowing who will die next. Now imagine this has happened to someone in nearly every family on your block, and on the next block, and in the whole town.

This is Iraqi society.

And yet Gen. George Casey and Gen. John Abizaid wanted to put the DAVID burden of nationbuilding on the victims and initiators of this maelstrom. U.S. war strategy for the past three years has been to lighten the American footprint in Iraq and compel Iraqis to undertake the policing tasks we ourselves couldn’t accomplish.

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