Iraqis Ponder What Comes Next

A man walks past the site of a car bomb attack in Baghdad's Sadr City, in this August 7, 2014 file photo. Credit: REUTERS/Wissm al-Okili/Files

Special Report: Their Nation In Pieces, Iraqis Ponder What Comes Next -- Isabel Coles, Ahmed Rasheed and Ned Parker, Reuters

(Reuters) - The machine gun poking out from between a framed portrait of a Shi'ite imam and a stuffed toy Minnie Mouse was trained on anyone who approached the checkpoint.

Like dozens of other communities in Iraq, this small Sunni settlement in northern Salahuddin province’s Tuz Khurmatu district has been reduced to rubble. In October, Shi'ite militiamen and Kurdish peshmerga captured the village from the Sunni militant group Islamic State. The victors then laid it to waste, looting anything of value and setting fire to much of the rest. Residents have still not been allowed to return.

"Our people are burning them," said one of the Shi'ite militiamen when asked about the smoke drifting up from still smoldering houses. Asked why, he shrugged as if the answer was self evident.

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My Comment: What comes next .... that is easy to predict. I see nothing but more war and conflict, more terrorism, and sectarian divisions that will take a century or two to heal.