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Just because the United States went into the country of Iraq and removed the slightly mad dictator Saddam Hussein doesn't mean that everything has settled down and turned to peace.  Iraq has a long history of sectarian violence that pits the Sunni and Shiite Muslims against each other in religious conflict.  Now that the country is trying to get back on its feet and initiate the first round of elections since the U.S. withdrawal, that conflict arises once more and it is leaving a trail of the dead.

Currently, the Shiites are in control of the majority in the Iraqi government.  This has led to protests from Sunnis that claim the Shiites are abusing their power and oppressing the minority faction. Protesters have been calling for the resignation of the Shiite Prime Minister and voicing their discontent since December of last year.  What’s worse, the extremist Al Qaeda are increasingly being tied to Sunni dissidents.

The violence began in earnest with the detonation of several bombs throughout the country.  These bombs went off in mostly Shiite neighborhoods, killing many innocents and resulting in a death toll of 42.  The attack occurred just before the elections were to take place and many see it as a terrorist method to keep people away from the polls.  Previous to these attacks, however, there was already plenty of trouble with the elections.  13 candidates turned up dead and around 150 more were declared ineligible due to alleged ties with former ruler Saddam Hussein.  The Sunnis claimed that these killings and disqualifications were a Shiite attempt to marginalize their power in the elections.

Since then, the violence has continued to spread.  19 were killed in the town of Sulaiman Pek, four police and a family were killed in the city of Mosul and a car bomb in a Shiite neighborhood claimed two more lives in Baghdad.  The way things are going, it almost seems as if the country is on the brink of civil war.  If the cycle of revenge and retaliation continues, they most likely will move steadily toward that result.

Luckily, there are still some voices of reason amidst the turmoil.  Two top clerics within each faction have been calling out to people to stop the violence.  They say that the conflicts are the result of outside manipulation and that to continue will leave the country in complete chaos.  I for one agree with them wholeheartedly.  The Iraqi people have finally had their freedom of self-direction returned and the latest conflicts are more likely to bring in outside influence to “keep the peace” than produce any sort of victory among one faction or the other.  Once again, the wars of the past linger to haunt the people of the present and destroy their chances of obtaining something greater.

Sunni Protestors photo courtesy of Voice of America via Wikicommons