Reply #10: Well..actually... [View All]

[BigRed1975]

The sectarian conflict in Iraq is well over a thousand years old. It's the same "background" conflict that has driven even US policy toward Iran/Iraq post Carter years and is the reason why Iran is considered a threat by Saudi Arabia and many of the other Sunni countries. Recall that Iran is a minority Shiite country within the majority Sunni world. It was the British who left the Sunnis in charge of Iraq despite them being the minority party. They did this precisely to suppress the known goal of the Shiite leader at the time to attempt to form his own caliphate. The Sunni ruler was seen as easier to control. Interesting to note that Churchill had to leave Iraq because of financial considerations. Installing the weak Sunni leader was seen as a way to retain control from a distance..i.e. leave behind a dependent colony. Only strong fisted dictatorships such as the kind represented by Saddam suppressed the conflict. Saddam rose to power in 1975 and interestingly enough, the Ayatollah whom Saddam expelled from Najaf to Paris shortly thereafter, was the one who overthrew the Shah and took our hostages. Absent Saddam's hard ass secular rule, Wahabism ideology and Al Qaeda enter into the mix and you have the clash you see today...one which was always there waiting to emerge.

Big Red