The Shia and Sunnis have been trapped into a vicious cycle of blood feuds, terrorist attacks and ethnic cleansing. If the Shia intend to ascend to power in an orgy of ethnic cleansing (as it appears Al-Sadr's party intends to), America cannot support it, at least not openly and without question. Its bad for our image to be supporters of ethnic cleansing, and terrible for any potential influence we may still have that could help prevent a war between Shia and Sunnis in the Middle East.

American troops should never have to stand by helpless in the face of ethnic cleansing. (2) I know it happened in Kosovo, I know it happened after Desert Storm, but its not good for the military, their morale or for our image.

(1)
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1554329,00.html
(2)
http://www.time.com/time/world/printout/0,8816,1573037,00.html

Eddie, thanks for your service, regardless of deployment.

As for the above quote, at some point in time the US is going to either choose a side or walk away from the Sunni/ Shiite conflict, IMO. How does one mediate such an obviously lopsided sectarian war? By proxi, carefully shoring up one side or the other depending on what the events are in an effort to exhaust the two into a cease fire? That might work if the US wasn't knee deep in the country at hand.
Is it fair to place US troops in the position of an essentially static obstacle absorbing blows from two warring factions?

CK:
“The whole sorry affair illustrates not just incompetence but also the ingrained intolerance and sectarianism of the Maliki government. It stands for Shiite unity and Shiite dominance above all else.

We should not be surging American troops in defense of such a government. This governing coalition — Maliki's Dawa, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim's Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq and Sadr's Mahdi Army — seems intent on crushing the Sunnis at all costs. Maliki should be made to know that if he insists on having this sectarian war, he can well have it without us.”

(1)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/04/AR2007010401347_pf.html

“even the most staunch supporter of the war, Charles Krauthammer, has condemned (1) this”

Well, I think we should leave now [1] and I support the democratically elected Iraqi government.

You weren't trying an argument from authority, were you? :-p

Krauthammer reveals his absurdity in his second paragraph. He writes “For the Iraqi government to have botched both his trial and execution, therefore, and turned monster into victim, is not just a tragedy but a crime — against the new Iraq that Americans are dying for and against justice itself.” Iraq is a sovereign, democratic, ally in the war against terrorism. We are there at the request of the Iraqi government. For him to say that the workings of the Iraqi justice system of an Iraqi for crimes against Iraqis in Iraq are a “crime” against a foreign ally is bizarre. It only makes sense if one assumes that Iraq is a colony — which I believe Krauthammer does.

The rest of his opinion is similar imperialist garbage. If I have time I'll try to comment on it in depth.

“We should not be surging American troops in defense of such a government. “

We should not have active fighters there in the first place. We have a template for success in fighting our enemies: find their enemies, give them money, materiel, and air support, and do not interfere. It worked against the Taliban, where we reduced a once fearsome 4GW adversary into just-another tribal conflict (in other words, the status quo ante talibani), and it has been the only strategy Western governments have used successfully against 4GW opponents. We also have a template for failure: attack our enemy's enemies. We tried this in Vietnam, and this appears to be our current strategy in Iraq. [2]

Subadei,

“How does one mediate such an obviously lopsided sectarian war? “

How about supporting the side that hates both al Qaed and al Baath — in other words, the enemy of our enemy? [3]

[1] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2006/08/11/leave-iraq-now.html
[2] http://zenpundit.blogspot.com/2007/01/debating-counterinsurgency-recently.html
[3] http://www.tdaxp.com/archive/2006/03/14/how-to-recognize-good-guys-they-fight-bad-guys.html