Gays being targeted in Iraq....

Another reason why we need to end the insurgency....

Hard-line Shiite militias in Baghdad have issued a blanket death sentence for homosexuals, lesbians, prostitutes, liberal professors and booksellers.

Ali Hili, who ran a gay nightclub in Baghdad but fled to Britain this year after receiving death threats, told The Times of London he knows of more than 40 men killed in recent months.

Hili claims Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most revered spiritual figure in Iraq, provoked the slayings by saying on his Web site in April last year that homosexuals should be killed in the "worst, most severe way."

Ending the insurgency would limit the ability of these militias to operate....