Just who the hell are the Yazidis anyway?

I was almost beginning to believe that we just might ... just might, mind you ... be required to slog it out in Iraq for maybe three or four more years to insure that the al-Qaida militants who grew from essentially zero presence in Iraq before we invaded to becoming a fourth (or is it a fifth?) active insurgent force to be reckoned with there wouldn't grow to the size of bin Laden's organization in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

And just when we believe that we have the insurgent Sunni militias lined up with us (against those evil-but-small-in-number al-Qaida forces), what happens but that the Shiite insurgent militias (backed by Iran--not the al-Qaida) give us a present last week--the worst day in Iraq since the Iraq War began. In fact, it was the worst terrorist attack by anyone anywhere since 9-11!!!

Two small Kurdish towns were targeted by Iranian-backed Shiite insurgents--as best as can be determined today--although the pentagon at first said "It's al-Qaida; it's al-Qaida!"

In any event, more than five hundred Kurdish civilians died and many, many more were injured--like the young boy pictured above. Their crime? They happened to belong to a relatively unknown sect of Islam cum Christianity (actually pre-Islamic in its origins) called the "Yazidis" that had stayed pretty much out of the fray until we invaded four years ago.

Since then, we have heard stories of stonings and other atrocities that weren't really our business since that was part of the Iraqi way of doing business under the new Government that we installed. The latest stoning, by the way, was of a former Yazidi woman who was stoned to death by the Yazidis for becoming a Muslim. The vengeance for her death was/were a few executions (shootings) of Yazidis by Muslims ... and the band plays on.

Now, I have to ask myself whether we will ever really untangle the Sunni-Shiite-al-Qaida-Yazidi-Kurdish-secular-Baahtist spaghetti-with-blood-sauce that we have concocted. Where the Sunni insurgents end and al-Qaida begins is anyone's guess. Where the Shiite insurgents end and Iranian support begins is anyone's guess. And where the Iraqi government forces end and US forces begin is the hardest of all of the slimy, fuzzy dimensions of this ill-begot war.

Hillary thinks we might have to be there for some time to insure "stability." President George Bush only shrugged his shoulders at his last news conference. They appear to be about equally puzzled on this issue.

But three or four more years?

Not on MY dime!