Word: shi'a
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...Your Iraq coverage has always been superb, and your cover story raises the bar even higher. I don't think I had fully grasped the social and political aspects of the rivalry between Sunnis and Shi'ites until I read your story. Now I can't escape the conclusion that the solution to Iraq's problems cannot be military. Shi'ites and Sunnis have to sort this one out themselves, and the most the U.S. can do is try to be an honest broker between them. George Julius Xavier, NEW YORK CITY...
...Your historical perspective on the differences between the Sunnis and the Shi'ites was quite enlightening. These groups have a great deal of historical baggage to unload if they are to find peace instead of an unending civil war. But you destroyed a perfectly clear historical perspective by claiming that "There could be no more bitter legacy of the Bush Administration's fateful decision to go to war in Iraq" than an intramural death match between the two groups. This conflict has been going on for centuries. To blame it on the Bush Administration instead of those responsible - the self...
...sectarian war between Sunnis and Shi'ites would be comparable to a civil war in the U.S. between Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics. If Iraqis cannot tolerate slight differences in practice of the same religion, how can they embrace democracy? One of the foundations of our democracy is the acceptance of different ideologies, including religion. It's time for Sunnis and Shi'ites to get over their mutual 1,300-year-old grudge. If Americans can accept a multitude of religious creeds among their compatriots, then surely the Iraqis can accept differences in the same religion. Ronn Ohl, raleigh, NORTH...
...learning it can't pick sides in the sectarian bloodbath that has unfolded over the past year as ballooning Sunni and Shi'ite death squads have played a gruesome game of tit-for-tat. Last fall, a senior U.S. intelligence official in Baghdad explained that one side would always seek to take advantage of the other's weakness, which necessitated that the U.S. move to weaken and dismantle both in equal measure. To demonstrate, he put his hands up at the same level and brought them down simultaneously, as if closing a window...
...getting the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi government to display the same evenhandedness has been a challenge. In the West Wing on Monday, President Bush and Vice President Cheney spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki via video conference. Gesturing from a large flat panel screen in the cramped Situation Room, al-Maliki assured Bush and Cheney he was committed to implementing the most recent security plan for Iraq in an "evenhanded manner," according to the White House. That was exactly what Bush and Cheney wanted to hear...