Reply #36: Agree.

[RaleighNCDUer]

The widespread factional violence we see today is a first since the 1920s in Iraq. That's not to say there were NO animosities but they were mostly localized disturbances which popped up across the years, regardless of who was in charge. The cosmopolitan areas generally had a very integrated nature, Sunni and Shi'ite mosques and Christian churches stood side by side (relatively speaking), most tribes and many families had both Sunni and Shi'ite members, just as here a family might have Catholics, Methodists and Jews.

It was not just Saddam that held it together - in fact, I suspect he is largely a part of the reason it disintigrated as quickly as it did, with his paranoid dependence upon his Sunni Tikriti family exacerbating the Sunni/Shia divide.

I have long thought that the bombing of the Golden Mosque, that kicked the civil war into high gear, was a black bag job, because at that time the Sunni and Shi'ite militias were beginning to cooperate in their attacks on the US occupiers. Both were allying against the cross-border intruders whom we have deemed to all be Al Queda - they weren't fighting for some Wahabbhi jihad. They were fighting for their national independence from western invaders, just like they did in the 20s. Shi'ite and Sunni alike did not want Saudis and Yememis turning their country into a battleground. So we blow up the mosque, and turn them against each other, and away from us.

At least, that's my take on it.