The quagmire in Iraq gets worse with each passing day. This, despite an occupation of more than four years, several elections and a massive infusion of US aid. Despite everything, the Iraq war/occupation continues and US soldiers continue to suffer ever-increasing casualties.

One of the reasons for the continuing violence, of course is the attitude of the ‘government’ of Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki and his Shia allies within the Iraqi parliament.

The New York Times noted in its editorial page the other day, that despite all the Washington hand-wringing and pleading about the necessity for the Iraqi parliament to (1) set up oil-sharing for the three main tribal-sectarian groups (2) stop the infiltration of Shia insurgents into the security forces and (3) bring the Sunnis into the government,  nothing's been done to achieve these goals. Nothing is going to be done in the near future in any case, because the parliament is going to take the next few months off for a summer recess!

The reason the current Iraqi ‘government’ has done none of the things  Washington wants, is because it’s Shia dominated and the Shia want to stay in power. Period. Which means, basically, that nothing is ever going to be done if it in any way helps the Sunnis. Both parties hate each other and don’t  want to cooperate. Basically the Shia are into using their security forces to oppress the Sunni and the Sunni for their part, are into hitting back at Shia neighborhoods with car-bombs and death squads. Both sides hate each other. How much? Check out a recent article in the New York Times.

In an piece entitled In Iraq, the Play Was the Thing author Hussain Abdul-Hussain told a story from his school days in Iraq where the hatred between the Shia and the Sunni brands of Islam were made very real. In a play showing some aspect of the Iraq/Iran war, school children who took the part of the Iranian soldiers were mercilessly picked on by their school-fellows. Sectarian hatreds, therefore, start at an early age and continue through life. The author noted that while most Shia are thankful to the US for taking out Saddam Hussein, now, they just want us to get out of Iraq, so they can be free to deal with the Sunni as they please. Worse, the Shia now feel a kinship to Iran. They hope to have Iran as a full-fledged ally once the US leaves.

Ayad (a friend of the author) "believes that there is no problem in establishing an Islamic government in Baghdad styled after that of the Iranian Republic. The Sunnis, he said, have ‘oppressed us since the days of the Prophet, and now it is our chance to hit back and rule.’ "

"It is exactly this possibility (says the author)  that has made the Sunni Arab regimes fear a Shiite regional revolt and moved some to support the Sunni insurgency in Iraq or at least to voice their resentment of the Iraqi Shiite government, which is seen as being biased against Iraqi Sunnis. ‘But we are Iraqis,’ the author told Ayad. "We are Arabs. We have our cultural differences with the Persians. We don't even speak the same language."

But his friend simply answered that he (and probably most) Shia are Shia first and Iraqis second. The same is probably true of the Sunni. All of which simply shows that the conflict in Iraq is basically a sectarian civil war.

All this talk you hear from ideologues of the far right simply ignores the sectarian nature of the struggle.   There is nothing there for the US to ‘win’ in Iraq.  The US has taken the side of the Shia in a sectarian conflict and is doing Prime Minister al-Maliki's   fighting for him.

This war is a civil conflict and not worth one American life. The sooner the current administration understands this simple fact, the quicker the US can withdraw.

Posted 11:30 AM