Good thing that Dear Leader is telling 10 year olds that democracy is on the march in Iraq.  I mean, if it wasn’t on the march, how much worse could the sectarian violence (read: civil war) in Iraq get?

We have the latest atrocity from today that has a commuter bus stopped by suspected Sunni gunmen and 21 people dragged out, shot and killed.  Included in these 21 people were a dozen teens who were on their way to take exams.

And in the most obvious sign of the growing civil war, 4 Sunnis’ lives were spared, 19 of the dead were Shiite Turkomen and the other 2 were Kurds.

More below:

This is being called the worst of the sectarian massacres in recent weeks, and occurred on the outskirts of Diyala province, which has been marred by violence recently.  According to the report:

Gunmen dragged passengers off a buses northeast of Baghdad and killed 21 people, including a dozen high school students. The attackers spared four Sunni Arabs in one the worst sectarian atrocities in recent weeks.

Serwan Shokir, the mayor of Qara Tappah, said one other person was wounded in the early morning attack. He said there were 26 people on three mini headed from his town to Baqouba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad. The 12 slain students were apparently headed for Baqouba to take exams.

But this isn’t the only violence over the past 24 hours.  Additionally, there was a gunbattle in Basra that left nine more dead after Iraqi police surrounded a Sunni mosque.  This too has the stench of civil war:

The standoff occurred hours after police stormed four Sunni mosques in Iraq’s second-largest city late Saturday and Sunni clerics called on followers to gather in one of the shrines to protect it.

Basra police said they were searching for suspected militants based inside the al-Arab mosque in Basra when gunmen opened fire from within the shrine. Iraqi forces also said they arrested six people and found two vehicles packed with explosives near the mosque. Six people were arrested.

And let’s not forget what happened yesterday, when a suicide car bomber in Basra blew himself up, killing 28 more and wounding 62 more.

So that is nearly 60 dead and another 60 wounded in three incidents over the past 24 hours.  And those are only the ones that we already know about.

Can we now officially call it what it is?  What has been warned for months, if not years?  Are we going to now have our troops serve as bigger targets in the middle of an all-out civil war?  A civil war that was predicted by many, ignored by those who planned the illegal invasion and now pretty much breaking out in full force?

Are we going to support out troops by continuing to underfund and under-arm them (as Congress did by not funding the troops before heading out for Memorial Day Weekend?)

Or is it now time (as it is already long overdue) for someone to put forth a plan to get our troops out of harm’s way, come up with some method to deal with the increasing violence and total chaos that has been created?

Nice job, Bush and Rummy – where is the banner titled “Civil War Accomplished”?