White House Officials Worry That After ISIS Is Defeated Another Sectarian War Will Break-Out In Iraq

The Hill: Fears grow of new sectarian war in Iraq

The Obama administration is growing worried about new sectarian bloodshed in Iraq once the military takes back territory from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Officials in the Shiite-majority government aligned with Iran are making moves to consolidate power, quietly purging Sunnis from the rolls of the military.

Several hundred senior Sunni officials in the Iraqi military have been fired and replaced with members of the Badr Corps, a Shiite militia created and supported by Iran, according to a U.S. official and sources in the region.

The Iraqi Ministry of Interior has also fired several thousands of other Sunni security forces in the past several weeks while continuing to arrest and “disappear” thousands of Sunnis, the sources said.

WNU Editor: It dos not take a genius to figure out that this is not going to end well.

The Middle East Is Being Divided Along Sectarian Lines

Syria, like Iraq And Lebanon, Is On Path Toward Sectarian Split -- McClatchy News

DARKUSH, Syria — The men from the last Alawite family in the northern Syrian town of Darkush have been kidnapped twice. The Saleh men were fortunate both times: They were released by rebels who’d suspected them of being agents for the government of President Bashar Assad.

Their good fortune wasn’t shared by the rest of the Alawites who used to live here. They’ve all left, a pattern that’s been repeated across Syria and mirrors the demographic changes that war brought to its neighbors, Iraq and Lebanon, in past years.

That tension between various religious sects has become a driver of Syria’s civil war, a development that was at the center of a U.N. report released Tuesday that decried the sharp, savage turn in the country’s violence. “The parties to the conflict are using dangerous rhetoric that inflames sectarian tensions and risks inciting mass, indiscriminate violence, particularly against vulnerable communities,” warned the report, compiled by an international panel of inquiry on Syria for the U.N.’s Human Rights Council.

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My Comment: I do not know when this sectarian conflict will end, but I do know that the anger and bitterness is gong to be around for a very long time.

Iraq's Death Toll From Violence Continues It's Downward Trend

The attack in Haditha is the first major instance of violence in the town since a suicide bomber blew himself up inside a bank, killing nine people and wounding eight others on March 2011. (Reuters)

Deaths See Large Drop In Iraq From January To February 2012 -- Musings On Iraq

After a series of articles warning that violence in Iraq was increasing, and that the country might be on the verge of a new civil war, the number of deaths was cut nearly in half in February 2012. Rather than marking a new trend in security, January’s high casualties were simply a result of the large number of targets available during the Shiite pilgrimage of Arbayeen to Karbala, and insurgents trying to make a statement after the U.S. troop withdrawal in December 2011. With only one mass casualty bombing, and an especially bloody day when militants were able to carry out attacks in seven provinces, February returned to the norm of monthly casualties.

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My Comment: Tthe trend is downward in Iraq's sectarian conflict .... but .... Iraq is still politically unstable, and if Iraq's history is any indication .... it may be calm now, but a full blown civil war can quickly develop as it did in 2006.

With U.S. Soldiers Leaving Iraq, Fears Are Rising That Al Qaeda Will Be Coming Back

Troops from Joint Base Balad left Iraq on Tuesday for the United States. Pentagon officials are arguing for a future role in Iraq. Andrea Bruce for The New York Times

Leaving Iraq, U.S. Fears New Surge Of Qaeda Terror -- New York Times

BAGHDAD — As the United States prepares to withdraw its troops from Iraq by year’s end, senior American and Iraqi officials are expressing growing concern that Al Qaeda’s offshoot here, which just a few years ago waged a debilitating insurgency that plunged the country into a civil war, is poised for a deadly resurgence.

Qaeda allies in North Africa, Somalia and Yemen are seeking to assert more influence after the death of Osama bin Laden and the diminished role of Al Qaeda’s remaining top leadership in Pakistan. For its part, Al Qaeda in Iraq is striving to rebound from major defeats inflicted by Iraqi tribal groups and American troops in 2007, as well as the deaths of its two leaders in 2010.

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My Comment: These fears are justified. Al Qaeda's base in Iraq comes from the Sunni minority that lives in Baghdad as well as north and west of the capital. With a predominantly Shiite government showing "no love or affection" for this (Sunni) group, concerns that many Sunnis may drift back to joining these extremist groups and reignite a new sectarian war becomes more realistic with each passing day.