KR: Ethnic hatred in Iraq has become entrenched, political solutions elus

[Pirate Smile]

Ethnic hatred in Iraq has become entrenched, political solutions elusive

By Tom Lasseter and Nancy A. Youssef
Knight Ridder Newspapers

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Zeena Ahmed, a Shiite Muslim who lives in a Sunni Muslim neighborhood in western Baghdad, has come up with a plan if a Sunni mob attacks her family. She'll run to the back of the house, scream for help and hope to escape slaughter. She's certain the attack will come.

Alaa al Badri, a Sunni who lives in a Shiite neighborhood in southern Baghdad, has a hard time forgiving himself for not going to the streets with a gun this week when he heard the local Sunni imam calling for help on a loudspeaker, saying that the mosque was under attack. He'd have gone, al Badri said, but he was worried that his Shiite neighbors would slip into his home and murder his wife and children.

More than a week after the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra ignited sectarian fighting that left hundreds dead and dozens of mosques burned, the continued violence and mistrust have made it clear that Iraq's multiethnic society has ruptured and won't soon heal.

Scores of Iraqis like Ahmed and al Badri now cower in their homes, hoping that the next major bombing doesn't provoke unrestrained violence. Interviews this week with ordinary Iraqis, top Iraqi officials and analysts made it clear that the nation, almost three years after the U.S. invasion, is teetering: As politicians stumble to form a unified government almost three months after national elections, hatred and fighting are pushing the nation toward civil war.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/14012235.htm

[Pirate Smile]

1. more

"If things go further, we are not too concerned about our protection, due to the security of our bases, but hunkering down is no way to fight an insurgency or stop a civil war," a senior U.S. military official in the region said in an e-mail exchange. The official asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject. "Bottom line: We aren't structured for a civil war, either in troop strength or disposition. It would be a new ballgame."

-snip-
But when images of the revered Askariya shrine, its huge golden dome turned to rubble, spread through Iraq late last month, chaos followed, despite Sistani's calls for peaceful demonstrations.
The reaction resulted from "an accumulation of frustration during three years of daily car bombs, daily suicide bombs, (insurgents) attacking mosques ... without giving the people the hope there is an end to that, as if they have to live with it," said Adel Abdul-Mahdi, one of Iraq's two vice presidents and an influential member of one of the most powerful Shiite political groups.

-snip-
Sectarian clashes on the streets have provoked unsettling confrontations at the highest levels of government.
On Wednesday, Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, a Shiite who has connections to one of the nation's most feared Shiite militias, appeared on national television and complained that government troops were shot by guards at the house of Harith al Dari, Iraq's most powerful hard-line Sunni cleric.
Jabr promised to send more troops to al Dari's house to seek justice.

-snip-
Anwar al Shimarti, a Shiite leader in the southern town of Najaf, said in a phone interview this week that the desire for revenge, and not politics, seemed to be gaining ground.
"We held a conference for the tribal sheiks of the middle Euphrates area and the sheiks' ... spirits were boiling inside," said al Shimarti, of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution, a leading Shiite political party. "They wanted to seek vengeance - their hearts are angry and full of revolt - and they want revenge." '

[anotherdrew]

2. I'm not believing it til I see it. I just don't buy "civil-war"

we'll see a lot of mystery explosions but that's it I bet.

[rodeodance]

4. well, they could bunker down here at home.

[Erika]

5. These tribes never wanted to be joined

Saddam held them together. Now, they will disperse according to their religious beliefs.

And we've lost 2,300 troops.

[Erika]

3. You don't believe in civil war

Just check www.icasualties.org

[magellan]

6. BushCo talk it up and the Corporate Media plays along

Remember how they weren't "talking up" a recession during the 2000 election campaign and after? And how they weren't "talking up" a war with Iraq? BushCo likes to remind everyone often that they don't "talk up" things that somehow magically seem to happen anyway.

[Erika]

7. Yes Civil war is in Iraq

Bush can finally say "Mission Accomplished"

[ConcernedCanuk]

8. Right out of the PNACers playbook, this religious/civil strife in Iraq

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cuz no-one is paying attention as the USA continues to furiously build bases and embassies in Iraq to solidify their toehold in the ME.