(2006-02-24) Iraq Civil War Anarchy

Is Iraq heading into Civil War? Once a society has lapsed back into tribal anarchy (Tribalism), a vicious cycle sets in, one in which each of the feuding tribes will be egged on, by their own members, to perpetrate more and more ruthless acts against the enemy tribe. Thus new enormities are committed by one tribe, which immediately call forth even more hideous enormities by the other tribe. Under tribalist anarchy, the lex talionis is suspended. An eye for an eye is no longer enough - there must be three, four, or a hundred eyes for each eye. If you kill our women, we kill your children. If you destroy one of our mosques, we will destroy a hundred of yours. Which brings us to the dilemma of an American army trapped in the midst of tribalist anarchy. In our War Between the States, it was quite possible for an outsider to take one side or the other. For example, both the British and the French flirted with recognizing, and even throwing their support behind, the South. But, under conditions of tribalist anarchy, it is impossible for any outsider to try to take sides in the feud.