Not long after defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld states unambiguously that U.S. forces will stand by if the nascent civil war in Iraq accelerates, we read this:
"On Monday, in Sadr City, the Shiite section in Baghdad where the terrorist suspects were executed, government forces vanished. The streets are ruled by aggressive teenagers with shiny soccer jerseys and machine guns.
They set up roadblocks and poke their heads into cars and detain whomever they want. Mosques blare warnings on loudspeakers for American troops to stay out. Increasingly, the Americans have been doing just that.
There seems to be no minimum age to join the action. A playful boy named Musa, who said he was 11 but looked about 8, was part of a 4-foot-tall militia struggling to drag chunks of concrete into the street to block cars on Monday.
"We’re guarding the road," Musa explained.
He was carrying a toy pistol. Some of the other boys had real ones."
I wonder if Rumsfeld has ever read Hobbes.
The Dish 