Yeah, I don't know what I was thinking when I said that. I may have been projecting my desires a bit. De facto seems more accurate.
Nothing so smoothly delineated as Switzerland. At least, not for another eight centuries or so-just to be fair
. Probably only after every other violent recourse has been mutually exhausted.
My concern is that while we are achieving grass-roots security progress of an undeniable sort, in what direction I don't know. Less violent? Certainly. Sustainable? Who knows?
I'm not certain that we haven't simply created a civic-minded vigilante. Willing to leave their neighbors be out of mutual exhaustion, but wary and distrustful nonetheless. Villages and neighborhoods patrolled by armed citizens beats a more aggressive posture of seeking vendetta, but only barely. Then there's the issue of displacement. A lot of Iraqis have been moved about because of this war. How that will affect local politics is hard to imagine.
I thought that there'd be regional elections by the end of this year. It will be interesting to see how that would shake out, were it so. The sunnis haven't really mobilized for elections and it'll be exciting to watching that occur.
It is, though, a start of something different and maybe better. I confess-Iraq isn't Switzerland and we're not watching HEIDI.