The mannner in which the elections have been conducted, with results that favor Shiites at the expense of Sunnis has only deepened their resentment. The participation of Kurdish and Shia soldiers in the "Iraqi Army" in our operations (like Fallujah) against Sunni communities which we have identified as hotbeds of the insurgency, has led to a bitterness that will last for generations to come. Add to that our detention and torture of innocent civilians (primarily Sunnis), our training and equipping of Shia (and probably Kurdish) death squads, and our passive indifference to the tortures and massacres perpetrated against Sunni citizens by the putative Iraqi government (controlled by Shia politicians).There is nothing that our presence can do to remedy this process. We are a major source of the problem there.
These suicide bomb attacks against Shia communities have been going on for some time now. They will continue whether we go or stay, just as the actions by Shia militias, and by "official" Iraqi Army and police units, in retaliation against Sunni communities, will also continue. We have been the catalyst for the outbreak of an ethnic conflict that will rival anything the world has witnessed in the Balkans or in Africa over the past several decades. It will worsen whether we are present as an active participant in the process, as we are now, or whether we leave. Indeed, the longer we stay, the worse it may get, as our forces are a magnet for all those in the Arab world who wish to join this Sunni jihad in Iraq.
So what's the solution?
Beats me. We walked into Iraq blind, deaf and dumb, and it seems that the Bush admininstration has continued in that manner to this day. We are now deep in the tar pit, and there do not seem to be any good options. So we will have to choose a poor one and try to make it work. It needs to include us getting out, though.
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