Reply #64: Unfortunately Iraqis are killing other Iraqis because of their religion, not because of the US.

[AZBlue]

It was the dictatorship of Saddam that prevented this from happening for years. I'm not praising him in any way of course, but that was the one "benefit" of his rule. But this so-called "benefit" had a flip-side - hatred and resentment between the three groups increased under the Ba'athist rule, they just weren't able to do anything about it at the time. Now, they have that freedom. Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds would each like to see the other two sects completely eliminated and are simply acting now toward those goals. The most recent example I can think of is a story from NPR about the internal check-points that have been set up in cities. People have to pass through these check-points twice a day, to and from work. If the check-point was set up by the Sunnis, for example, and you are a Shiite, you're literally risking your life twice daily just to go to work. It's insane.

That's not to say that there aren't some Iraqis who are targeted because of their connection with the US occupation, but the majority of the Iraqi-Iraqi causalities are a result of religious conflicts, not American connections.

To me, the only answer is to separate Iraq into three different countries. I don't see how to resolve the differences between these three groups, so why waste more lives, Iraqi, American or other?