Iraq used to be a "peaceful" country (until the war with Iran)... much the same way that Yugoslavia used to be a peaceful country. In Yugoslavia, you had the hardline Communist rule making sure that the Serbs and the Bosnians didn't tear each other to pieces. What happened when the Communist rule was no longer there? The same thing that happened once Saddam left... and is really going to happen once the Americans leave Iraq.
The truth is, Shiite Muslims and Sunni Muslims hate each other much more than the Serbians hate the Bosnians. In fact, Sunni Muslims (Saudi Arabians) generally rank Shiite Muslims (Iranians) higher than Jews in their list of people they hate.
Now, of course the educated and open-minded members of Iraq's citizenry, who are the people principally charged with forming a government, can possibly work side by side with their Sunni/Shiite Muslim brethren... but at street level? The shop owners and the police officers and the taxi drivers and the unemployed and under-educated millions? Do you think that they have any intention of putting aside 1400 years of hostility and (more importantly) 1400 years of religious teaching? Not on your life.
So what is the solution? Look to India and Pakistan and Bangledesh, which were formed from a single India after Britain relinquished the place. Iraq is quite simply an entity that cannot exist with Saudi Arabia on one side and Iran on the other without somebody like Saddam (or the similarly ruthless leaders who preceded him), brutally holding these factions together. If there is ever going to be peace in this region, it will have to be in the form of Shiite and Sunni (and Kurd) independent countries.
The only question is will this separation be like Pakistan's from India (with only a moderate lot of fighting and killing), or will it be like the breakup Yugoslavia... with a horrendous slaughter.
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