Game of divide and rule in Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/db/blogs/1265/2007/06/20-182136-1.htm

"Americans want to (divide) Iraqis into ethnic and sectarian groups living separately from each other. They are not doing this directly, but they have obviously given room to militias and Iraqi forces to do the job. We are more than halfway towards a sectarian Iraq," InterPress Service (IPS) quotes Khali Sadiq, researcher in statistics at Baghdad University.

He's not alone in accusing the United States of splitting Iraq into ethnically clean parts. The Initial Benchmark Assessment Report, the U.S. government's latest progress report indicates there is indeed a plan to divide Baghdad and possibly the whole country along ethnic lines.

The U.S.-backed Iraqi government has target lists of Sunnis and even uses fictitious charges against them in order to cleanse the security forces, according to the document. Some parts of Baghdad are already populated purely by Shias, partly from Shia death squads having killed off their non-Shia residents.

"(Death squads) evicted many of our good Sunni neighbours and killed many others.We protected them for a while, but then we could not face the militias with all the support they had from the Iraqi government and the Americans. It is a terrible shame that we have to live with, but what can we do?" Abu Riyad, a resident of Baghdad's predominantly Shia Shula area tells IPS.

[Psephos]

1. I don't see why it's in either US or Iraqi interests to cleave Iraq along sectarian lines

Balkanization does not lead to stability...quite the opposite, as events in the Balkans have shown.

Compare/contrast with this piece from Michael Yon. He's an independent, reader-supported blogger who's in Iraq, making first-hand observations.

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/7-rules-1-oath.htm