Oderint dum metuant

Unless there is security there is no chance for a civil society or democratic institutions necessary for a democratic government: the Administratin jumped the gun on elections, but those elections, as evidenced by the millions of Iraqis who risked their lives to vote, could have been a jumping off point, if, and only if, security could have been established. While 15 of 18 provinces are virtually violence-free, certainly safer than, say, Detroit, three are not, including the capital city.

Permitting violence and a poor security situation to continue impedes the creation of a civil society and allows for men such as al-Sadr to aggrandize their power at the expense of Ayatollah al-Sistani and other "moderates".

Additionally, as regards von Clauswitz, war being politics by other means seems to provide the only way to view the present, popular claim that there is only a "political solution" in Iraq.