Several years before the 2003 U.S. invasion, western media had already divided the Iraqi society into several ethnic and sectarian groups. Even western powers, particularly the U.S. and the U.K. had their prior invasion policies based on the fact that Iraq was divisible into at least three separate ethnic, sectarian and geographical regions. 

The two powers even resorted to military means to translate their strategy of partitioning the country on the ground. They create two no-fly zones one in the north and one in the south ostensibly to protect the northern Sunni Kurds and the southern Arab Shiites from the �oppressive� Arab Sunni regime in the center. 

When the two powers occupied Iraq, they pressed ahead with their strategy. Instead of working for a unified and multicolored Iraq, they began driving one wedge after another between the different components of the society. 

In the pre-invasion period they had two no-fly zones. In the post-invasion period they destroyed the country�s institutions in which the various sects, faiths and nationalities were represented. 

In the institutions they dismantled differences like those surfacing currently in Iraq were non-existent. There were Arab Shiites and Sunni Kurds serving at the various levels of administration. In fact many Iraqis would even not bother to ask whether the president of a university, the dean of a college, the governor of a province or even the head of the security or intelligence at the provincial levels was Shiite, Sunni, Christian or Kurd. 

There were Christian and Shiite Baathists at the head of Baath party organizations in many provinces in Iraq. Iraqis rarely asked whether the boss who reported to former leader Saddam Hussein was Shiite, Sunni, Kurd or Christian. Those were rarely issue of concern to them. 

Today, conditions are different in what is supposed to be a democratic Iraq. Every where and at any level of government � civil or military � the first thing to know is who is who at all ranks of the newly formed institutions.  

Not only that. The ministries are now divided on sectarian and ethnic grounds. So are almost all the new institutions the invaders or their lackeys have set up. A ministry could be Shiite, for example. Not only that. It could be under the hegemony of a certain Shiite faction. The minister owes his presence and loyalty to the faction he belongs to and not to the nation. 

Every new brick the invaders added to our institutions is tainted with sectarianism. The first thing Iraqis would like to know now is whether the police or military commander of the force assigned to protect them is Shiite, Sunni or Kurd and which faction he belongs to. Some communities would rather have the anti-U.S. rebels or even al-Qaeda-related insurgents govern their areas than relinquishing control to units led by commanders of opposite sect. 

The invaders are the reason of this mistrust. They nourished these divisions right in the aftermath of their occupation. They are to blame for the carnage and atrocities taking place now because they fueled the sectarian divide in a country where sectarian borders are impossible to draw. 

Take the Iraqi Arabs who make up more than 80 per cent of the population. The major Arab tribes like the Shammar, the Zubaid, the Rabiaa, the Jibour, the Tai, the Iza and many others straddle the sectarian divide the invaders have created. These tribes are composed of both Arab Sunni and Shiite members who for centuries defended each other and have been connected through bonds of blood and marriage. 

Kurds and Turkmen, the other two major minorities, are present throughout the country. There are about one million Kurds in Baghdad alone and it is almost impossible to have them distanced from the rest because of the ties of marriage and  shared cultural and religious values. 

The invaders have indeed destroyed the fabric of coexistence and tolerance that unified the country. This is why most Iraqis would rather have them leave in humiliation. Their presence is part of the problem and not solution.

http://www.uruknet.info/?s1=1&p=28981&s2=13

Original Source: http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=opinion%5C2006-12-03%5Ckurd1.htm