Commitment or collapse – Rick Moran has a long, impassioned post over at Rightwing Nuthouse suggesting that Iraq is a failing state with little chance for redemption without a massive security effort: “...the reason I have come to this conclusion now is that the enemies of Iraqi democracy have established a clear upper hand in the country and it is uncertain at best whether the situation can be retrieved at this point.”

It’s certainly hard to be optimistic given the endless violence and it calls to mind the question of whether democracy can take hold in Iraq or whether sectarian hostility can only be quelled by a brutal dictatorship. I’d like to believe the unheralded and un-headlined progress in building a liberal democracy from scratch will, in the long run, have a transformative effect in the Middle East, but admittedly it’s hard to see through the blood. The Iraqis need to choose between peace and modernity or another millennium mired in tribal aggression.