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Blog Fights... by John Tierney, September 06, 2003
Sorry to disappoint, but it’s not going to be much of a blog fight because I agree with most of what you say, Salam, though not all of it. Al-Hakim’s assassination is very significant, you're right. It will be used as an excuse for vendettas, faction fighting and more violence between Shi’a and Shi’a and Sunnis and Shi’a. Already his followers are swearing to avenge his death and I shudder to think of the next group of victims. It is extremely frightening to think of what the consequences of this will be. People are blaming America because a. America is responsible for the security of this country- when you dissolve the army and pull down the police force, *you* become responsible and, b. there is a sense that the CPA is furthering the divide between Iraqis by encouraging, and emphasizing, religious, factional and ethnic differences. I know more about the different factions after this war than I ever knew and it’s the same thing with everyone else. This heightened awareness is the result of labeling people as either ‘Arab Sunni’ or ‘Shi’a Turkoman’, or ‘Assyrian Christian’… you *have* to belong somewhere now- you can’t just be a Kurd or Christian or Muslim or simply an *Iraqi*. People believe that the ancient “divide and conquer” is being employed. Instead of having Iraqis, Shi’a and Sunnis and Christians, united in a struggle (peaceful or otherwise) against occupation, it’s easier to have Iraqis fighting each other. The resulting sentiment will be that occupation forces are not only desirable, but that they are vital for ‘keeping the peace’. I’m not blaming Americans, specifically- it’s the oldest trick in the book. The British attempted it before them (factional differences), and the Ottomans practiced it for hundreds of years (ethnical differences). And no, people- don’t bother writing that email telling me to ‘stop blaming America’ and why can’t ‘…you mozlem freaks get your act together and stop killin’ eachother…’ Every society has its extremists and every nation has its potential for civil war. When there’s no law and order, people will do strange and horrible things. You don’t know how hard I pray that we, as a people, are above religious differences. I seriously hope that this was done, as they are claiming, by Al-Qaeda or some outside forces because it will be horribly disappointing to see that after hundreds of years of putting religious differences aside, various groups of thugs and fanatics will be able to reap the benefits of even more chaos and killing. |