Iraq emerges from war a society divided by sect

[xchrom]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/11/27/international/i082343S64.DTL

The sounds of cars honking, shoppers shuffling and children laughing and playing drums fill the air in Hurriyah, a Baghdad neighborhood where machine-gun fire and death squads once kept terrified residents huddled in their darkened homes.

But normalcy has come at a price: Few Sunnis who were driven from what was once a religiously mixed enclave have returned five years after Hurriyah was the epicenter of Iraq's savage sectarian war. With Shiite militias still effectively policing the area, most Sunnis will not dare move back for years to come.

Hurriyah — the name means "freedom" in Arabic — is symptomatic of much of Iraq: far quieter than at the height of the war but with an uneasy peace achieved through intimidation and bloodshed. The number of Iraqi neighborhoods in which members of the two Muslim sects live side by side and intermarry has dwindled.

The forced segregation, fueled by extremists from both communities, has fundamentally changed the character of the country. And it raises questions about whether the Iraqis can heal the wounds of the sectarian massacres after American forces leave by the end of this month.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/11/27/international/i082343S64.DTL#ixzz1evYMZqMt

[Vincardog]

1. This is different than most of us said going in.... HOW?

[FarCenter]

2. Iraq should have been divided into three countries long ago

It was three provinces under the Ottomans.

[Vincardog]

4. I believe it was the British who left it in its' current configuration. The point is IT is NOT our

problem. We would have never been involved it they had no oil. WE would still never have been involved if gb the lesser had not had an Oedipal problem.

[xchrom]

5. +1 -- now it's just a sad mess and our legacy. nt

[FarCenter]

6. IIRC, it was a consolation prize to an Arab king that Lawrence had promised Arabia to

But the Sauds got Arabia instead.

[lunatica]

3. We were saying this before the first shots were fired in that war

Ten years later we turn out to be right. What a surprise.

[tabatha]

7. Sunni and Shia lived together before the Iraq war.

With no problems.

If they manage to heal the divide eventually, the US cannot take credit as some will do.