Maintain Order...

I was reading an AP article on violence in Iraq, and came across the following paragraph...

"The speed with which the reprisal attacks spread Wednesday — breaking out in Baghdad, Basra and smaller, religiously mixed cities — raised new doubts about the capability of Iraq's security forces to maintain order."

The same thing could be true in any of the cities in the United States where there is a lot of racial tension. For example, the LA riots when the policemen who beat Rodney King were acquitted also "raised new doubts about the capability of [America's] security forces to maintain order" as well. The scattered violence that occurred after Hurricane Katrina raised the same doubts, the violence that flares up in major cities after their sport franchise wins or loses a big game all cast doubts on our ability to maintain order in our own country. The difference is that those acts are born of impulsive frustration or a short-term anger. The violence in the Middle East seems to be the result of deep-seated anger resulting from feelings of being treated unfairly for millenia. It is quite possible that the strongest military presence in the world would be unwilling to "maintain order" in such a seething environment.

Ultimately, it is the people's willingness to be governed by the rule of law that allows free society's to operate and flourish. When the people are not willing to be governed by the rule of law, where people are killed for "snitching" (see an interesting article on this in Time Magazine this week), where people hate each other and authority figures, then chaos reigns. Luckily, it seems like the majority of Iraqis are not hate-filled, seething fanatics who wish death on anyone who doesn't see things in the same way as they do. They are willing to be governed by the rule of law from what I have read and heard from friends who serve in Iraq, but the minority of people in Iraq, want to continue to foment strife to maintain their agenda of an Iraq where people's freedoms are seriously curtailed.

Finally, I thought it would be interesting if the Associated Press investigated "gang warfare" and "gun battles" with police in the same way they report on the religious retaliations occurring in Iraq. Would America look very secure? Would our security forces be seen capable of solving the problem of violence in our own streets? People die daily in America as a result of hatred and violence too...