Reply #149: more history of the divide

[kwassa]

http://dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=10338

Fallujah and its aftermath did not break the Iraqi insurgency's back

By Anthony H. Cordesman

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

excerpt:

At the same time, Iraqis who claim that religious identity has not been important in the past ignore some brutal realities. No one who spent time with Iraqi officials during the Iran-Iraq war can really be unaware that the security forces kept constant watch over Iraqi Shiites in the south, and that religious affiliation was a critical issue in Iraqi security operations. Large cadres of Iraqi Shiites did desert and some operated in the marshes and broader areas in the south.

Shiite towns and areas did suffer from active discrimination in investment and jobs after the regime began to run out of money in 1982. The security forces also enforced a ruthless crackdown on any Shiite officers, clerics, or civilians they perceived as threatening, and this lasted from mid-1983 until the fall of Saddam. The uprisings in 1991, and the low-level military operations against Shiite dissidents that lasted well into the late 1990's, also help divide Sunnis and Shiites.