I just saw Barack Obama make one of the stupidist statements I've heard a politician make. He said there can't be a military solution to the civil war between the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq. There can always be a military solution; one side can defeat the other. That is what happened in the war between the North and South in the US (which wasn't really a civil war, but that is what the winners called it, so that is what it now is).