Remember that great success in Iraq? A wonderful multi-ethnic democracy which would highlight American freedom values around the region?
Oops!
It appears that a second round of de facto ethnic cleansing is occurring. Back during the worst of the sectarian violence mixed neighborhoods largely disappeared from Baghdad. Now the few that remain are seeing an exodus of minority Sunnis.
The question was disturbing: Why do you live here?
Ahmed al-Azami, a Sunni Muslim, has owned a house in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Shaab since 1999. But when Shiite residents recently began questioning why he, a Sunni, was living among them, he decided it was time to leave.
His story and similar tales by other Sunnis suggest Iraqis are again segregating themselves along sectarian lines, prompted by a political crisis pulling at the explosive Sunni-Shiite divide just weeks after the American withdrawal left Iraq to chart its own future.
The numbers so far are small and not easy to track with precision, but anecdotal accounts and a rise in business at real estate agencies in Sunni neighborhoods reveal a Sunni community contemplating the worse-case scenario and acting before it's too late.
Iraq turned out so well I think it is time for the U.S. to start another war or two. Say, Iran?
NOT!
Perhaps policymakers will finally start making war a last resort rather than their preferred policy option.
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