As we debate whether or not to intercede in Syria, maybe looking at what is still happening in Iraq can help clarify that, when it comes to sectarian hostilities, nothing seems to stop the bleeding.
176 people have already died in just three days as a result of terrorism in Iraq.
Today Shootings, car bombing leave at least 67 dead in Iraq
The Iraq Body Count site states that, as of yesterday, 106 Iraqis were killed.
Sunday 1 September: 73 killed
Camp Ashraf: 52 reported killed in clashes.
Tuz Khurmato: 6 by suicide car bomber.
Dujail: 5 family members by IED.
Tikrit: 3 by IEDs.
Ramadi: 3 policemen by suicide car bomber.
Mosul: 1 policeman by gunfire.
Baiji: 1 policeman by IED.
Amiriyat Falluja: 1 policeman by mortars.
Muqdadiya: 1 by IED.
Monday 2 September: 33 killed
Baghdad: 19 killed by IEDs, gunfire, suicide bombers.
Baiji: 1 by IED.
Al-Raiaya: 4 by car bombs.
Mosul: 2 by gunfire, IED.
Tikrit: 3 by car bomb.
Abara: 2 by car bomb.
Anbar: 1 policemen by gunfire.
Heet: 1 policeman by IED.
The majority of killings have been by either car bomb, IED, or suicide bombers.
During 2012 Iraq Body Count (IBC) recorded 4,574 civilian deaths from violence.
July has been the deadliest month for Iraq this year, with 875 killed and 1992 wounded according to AFP figures.
Also, two million fled Iraq while approximately 2.7 million are internally displaced people. Iraqi doctors have been murdered and 250 kidnapped since the 2003 U.S. invasion.
Iraqi Orphans: Estimated that there were 4.5 millions Iraqi orphans, with 500,000 living on the streets without any home or family care. The report further said there were only 459 orphans in governmental houses of orphans while there were 800 Iraqi orphans in American Iraqi prisons.
The killings in Iraq are blamed on a rising Al Qaeda, sectarian tensions, and even government parties.
That said, the same factions that are fomenting violence in Iraq exist in Syria except we still have a ruthless ruler at large in Syria.
Is it possible that the rulers of other Middle East countries, including Iran, can broker a cease fire in the war between sectarian factions in Syria?
Here's a map that shows where the Sunnis live and where the Shia live
Syrian Sectarian Divides:
The largest religious group in Syria are the Sunni Muslims which make up around 74% of the population,[1] of whom about 80% are native Syrian Arabs, with the remainder being Kurds, Turkomans, Circassians, and Palestinians
The Shia in Syria are divided into several groups: the Imamis or Twelvers (1.1%), the Ismailis (1.0%), also called Seveners and the Alawis (11.0%)
The Alawis, numbering about 2,350,562 or 11% of the population of Syria, constitute Syria's largest religious minority. They live chiefly along the coast in Latakia Governorate, where they form over 80 percent of the rural population. For centuries, the Alawis constituted Syria's most repressed and exploited minority. Most worked as indentured servants and tenant farmers or sharecroppers for Sunni landowners. However, after Alawi President Hafez Assad and his family clan came to power in 1970, the living conditions of the Alawis improved considerably.
The tension between Sunnis and the Alawis goes back for centuries. After the atrocities of the past few years, can these two factions unite for peace? Or will they continue this civil war until the Alawis are destroyed. It seems to me that there is a great risk of Alawi/Shia genocide at the hands of the Sunnis. Do the Sunnis from around the Middle East want to see this happen? Will Sunni leaders intercede? And if this does happen, won't the rest of the Middle East explode into a sectarian war?
The Shia majority countries are Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan and Bahrain. They also constitute 36.3% of entire local population and 38.6% of the local Muslim population of the Middle East.
Al Qaeda’s Sunni ideology regards Shiites as heretics and profoundly distrusts Shiite groups like Hezbollah. It was Al Qaeda that is reported to have given Sunni extremists in Iraq the green light to attack Shiite civilians and holy sites. An AlQaeda recruiter I met in Yemen described the Shiites as “dogs and a thorn in the throat of Islam from the beginning of time.”
The decision about what the US should do in Syria is extremely complex with an even more complex set of possible outcomes.
What, if anything, can be done to unite the Sunnis and Shia and then have them both join forces to remove terrorist groups from the Middle East?
Lastly, I wonder if the power players in DC see a united Sunni and Shia as "good for American interests?"
This is an interesting interview on the issue that you will not here spoken of in our media or in DC. I'll let you discern the contents, but do read this:
Is the Middle East moving toward a Shia-Sunni war? In summary, Hojjatollah Joudaki, Analyst of Regional Issues and Iran's Former Cultural Advisor to Egypt, says that many factions are fueling a sectarian civil war, hoping that both the Sunni and the Shia will be weakened, thus avoiding a Religious Theocratic takeover of Syria. It's more complex, whether or not you agree with Mr. Joudaki, it is a very interesting interview and highlights some of the potential back room dealings some of us have been concerned about.
The current state of sectarian violence in Iraq does not bode well for Syria's future, sadly, unless and until this Sunni vs Shia issue is resolved.