Civil society depends ultimately on the ability of the government to protect
the safety and security of its people.  If someone commits murder, we look
to the government officials to find the culprit, arrest and try the suspect, and
punish the guilty.  When people lose confidence in the government’s ability
or willingness to protect them, they have little alternative but to turn to
self-defense and neighborhood militias.

Today’s story in the Guardian chronicles the horror and
savagery that pass for society in Iraq. 

For Iraqis who suffer the loss of a family member, a dreaded ritual ensues.
Everyone knows there is no point in reporting a missing person to the police —
no action will be taken. The first stop is always the morgue. The lucky ones
find a body straight away. For others, the morning walk past the coffins has
to be repeated. Their search can last for days.

As a former trauma specialist in a hospital casualty department, Dr Baker
Siddique, 29, thought he was inured to scenes of carnage. But nothing he had
witnessed prepared him for a visit to a pathologist friend working at the
mortuary.

“I saw a street packed with people and coffins standing up vertically,” he
said. “There wasn’t enough room to lie them horizontally.”