I've been hanging a lot of pictures and such at our new store, which means I've been doing a lot of drilling to sink anchors in our 130-year-old plaster walls. These days, every time I use a power drill, I say a prayer for the people in Iraq.
The power drill is the torture device of choice for the thugs and criminals who run rampant on the streets of Iraq. Where Saddam once had large, well-funded torture facilities, the new paradigm is small operations. Militias will kidnap fathers and ask for huge ransoms, threatening to drill holes in dad and dump his body in the street if they're not paid. Or, they'll simply capture 'infidels' from other sects, torture them, shoot them, and dump their bodies as warnings.
While we debate the pros and cons of timetables for withdrawal and surges of troops in Iraq, we should remember what it is we've unleashed in that country. As we parse out the narrow definitions of 'civil war' and 'sectarian violence,' we should acknowledge that both involve thousands of men with drills in their hands and the will to use them.