An Eye For an Eye

(6 of 6)

But the U.S. has few good options left. Public patience with the mission in Iraq is likely to keep eroding as long as it appears that U.S. troops are standing in the middle of a religious shooting war. Civil wars are notoriously difficult to mediate without taking one side, and it doesn't help that in Iraq, battling Shi'ites and Sunnis seem to agree on only one thing: that the U.S. is ultimately to blame for the mess. Khalilzad is pleading with Shi'ites and Sunnis to return to talks on forming a new government. Still, it could be weeks, even months, before a workable new government is in place in Baghdad. That would be bad news for Washington, which desperately wants a quick political solution in Iraq. But most Iraqis would gladly trade last week's carnage for a few more months of political uncertainty.