This just in from the HealingIraq blogger, whose site is now down because Glenn just linked. I’m reposting Glenn’s excerpt, because it strikes me as a really big deal. We could be losing the ball-game right now, guys:
A coup d’etat is taking place in Iraq a the moment. Al-Shu’la, Al-Hurria, Thawra (Sadr city), and Kadhimiya (all Shi’ite neighbourhoods in Baghdad) have been declared liberated from occupation. Looting has already started at some places downtown, a friend of mine just returned from Sadun street and he says Al-Mahdi militiamen are breaking stores and clinics open and also at Tahrir square just across the river from the Green Zone. News from other cities in the south indicate that Sadr followers (tens of thousands of them) have taken over IP stations and governorate buildings in Kufa, Nassiriya, Ammara, Kut, and Basrah. Al-Jazeera says that policemen in these cities have sided with the Shia insurgents, which doesn’t come as a surprise to me since a large portion of the police forces in these areas were recruited from Shi’ite militias and we have talked about that ages ago. And it looks like this move has been planned a long time ago.
No one knows what is happening in the capital right now. Power has been cut off in my neighbourhood since the afternoon, and I can only hear helicopters, massive explosions, and continuous shooting nearby. The streets are empty, someone told us half an hour ago that Al-Mahdi are trying to take over our neighbourhood and are being met by resistance from Sunni hardliners. Doors are locked, and AK-47’s are being loaded and put close by in case they are needed. The phone keeps ringing frantically. Baghdadis are horrified and everyone seems to have made up their mind to stay home tomorrow until the situation is clear.
This sounds like civil war to me.
A WEDGE ON THE RIGHT: As I predicted, the marriage amendment issue is now deeply dividing not Democrats, but Republicans. Some Republicans insist on the most radical amendment, stripping states of the ability to decide on the matter and imposing one uniform definition of marriage on the entire country for the first time in history; others want a constitutional amendment that would be merely procedural rather than substantive, simply stripping courts from enforcing equal protection for gay couples; others oppose civil marriage rights for gays but don’t want to amend the constitution at all; others actually support civil marriage for gays and oppose the amendment. Among Democrats, barely no one supports any kind of amendment, and the main divide is between those who want to call civil marriage a civil union and those who simply want to call it what it obviously is. Here’s the latest in-fighting from Ramesh Ponnuru and Maggie Gallagher. It’s a carbon copy – if less acrimonious – of the debate between Orrin Hatch and Paul Weyrich. I predict even more splits to come. Way to go, Mr President.
THEOCON ALERT: They’re itching to excommunicate John Kerry from the Catholic church. As usual, Kathryn Lopez is leading the inquisition.
The Dish 