Saturday, November 11, 2006
It's not a civil war, it is a religious war
And that is the worst possible event for Iraq in particular and the region in general.
The sectarian violence that exploded in Baghdad, after the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra in February, has spread like a contagion to other regions.In a civil war, a strong leader could emerge or the population can finally tire of all the killing and destruction. In a religious war, no one ever tires of killing people who worship the wrong god. And none of Iraq's neighbors want to see their co-religionists in second place. It will be a war without end.
Shiite death squads in Baghdad have forced many Sunnis to flee to Baquba, 35 miles to the north, where some have joined the insurgency and have begun attacking Shiites.
“The Sunni have driven the Shia out of Baquba,” said Lt. Col. Thomas Fisher, commander of the 1-68 Combined Arms Battalion, which left Baquba in early November after a yearlong deployment. “They have come from Baghdad, driven out by Shiites there.”
Many Shiites are completing the circle, he said, fleeing to Baghdad or farther south.
Sunnis in Baquba now slaughter Shiites simply to avenge the killings of Sunnis in Baghdad, said Baquba’s mayor, Khalid al-Sinjari, a Sunni. “They kill in Baghdad, we kill in Baquba,” he said.
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