PG chirping in here and sorry for putting up that post on mutilation (though it does boil my blood).
My question is for Rustico (or anyone really) and mostly it is because my understanding of the Sunni/Shia conflict is fairly minimal. However my reading of your rant is that you downplay this conflict as being political in nature. My limited interpretation suggests this divide is much more serious than say the Irish/English protestant/Catholic divide. Or, am I am misunderstanding you?
My thoughts on why Sadaam was so brutal was precisely to quell or keep the factions from killing one another, using whatever means necessary. Isn’t there one camp of Bush critics who consider this area as incapable of civility, and therefore not worthy of losing men in battle?
