Brutes!

Writing in The Wall Street Journal editorial page, New Republic editor in chief Martin Peretz bashes the "Democrat Party" and also gives us his view of the Iraqi scene:

I think the odds against us are huge. One reason is that Iraq is neither a state that coheres nor a society that coheres. Its civil society, if that is what it is, is not quite a civilized society. The carnage between Shia and Sunni, and the carnage among other religious and ethnic communions, since the end of Ottoman rule have left deep and bloodied breaches in Iraq.

I agree with some of this, in particular that Iraq is neither a state nor a society that coheres. That said, it's hard not to notice that Peretz keeps claiming in his various writings that Iraqis are uncivilized (recall, e.g., the "rudiments of civilization" incident). Any conclusions to be drawn from this will be left to the reader.