the historical record, and even as the empirical evidence mounted—was the wide and deep current of inter-ethnic/inter-religious violence cutting across the entire conflict. For example, George Will is a political commentator who analyzes conflicts in Hobbesian terms.13 Will commented in April 2004 on the threat posed by the rise of Moqtada al Sadr, a Shi’ite leader in command of a sizable militia in southern Iraq: In the war against the militias, every door American troops crash through, every civilian