Iraqi civil war
The American civil war was the nation's bloodiest war in which Americans slaughtered fellow Americans in much bigger numbers than the combined American casualties in two world wars. In the Civil War, 400,000 Americans were killed and maimed by fellow Americans from North and South. But instead of bringing total disintegration of the country, the United States emerged a much more united and powerful country after the civil war.
Several factors were responsible for such a transformation. One was the realisation that the Americans were slaughtering their fellow Americans who were mostly whites and Protestant Christians. The second was economic as the slave states in the South realised that slavery had become a burden rather than asset. With industrial revolution sweeping the North, the Northern demands for Southern cotton and other raw materials were growing and the conflict with North was actually undermining South's economy. This brought South and North closer to the realisation that in a united American Republic with enough state's rights would be in their mutual interests.
Also in the civil war, there was no significant outside intervention. Although Britain initially provided arms to the South, including naval ships such as highly effective commerce raider Alabama, it quickly withdrew further assistance to South when the U.S. Secretary of State William Seward issued a stern warning. The British took the American anger extremely seriously. They saw the North's ultimate victory over the South in 1865 as an indication not only of the triumph of one section over another, but also of the emergence of much more powerful nation in North America. The British felt that had to concede American supremacy and stopped further interference in the domestic politics of the United States.
Similarly, Iraq is now going through the first phase of a civil war and the American interference may only be prolonging the conflict. Like the North-South Civil War in the United States, a Shia-Sunni civil war in Iraq might act as a catalyst for unity in Iraq provided there is no outside interference. After a period of bloodletting, the Shiites and the Sunnis will have to answer the question: Whether they should continue to kill each other until one side is completely eliminated or they should reach to each other and find a common ground to live together? After the bloodiest war in the American history, Abraham Lincoln declared: "With malice towards none and charity for all, we will work together so that the government of the people, for the people and by the people will not perish from the earth." If after such a bloody conflict Lincoln could promise such a future, it is not naive to hope that the Iraqis will one day come to the same conclusion.
The American military occupation of Iraq is preventing the Iraqis from coming to terms to each other. In fact, the Iraqis are killing each other in the name of fighting the Americans. The Sunnis think that by ousting Saddam's Sunni-dominated regime, the Americans have installed a puppet Shiite government that must be destroyed. The Shiites think that the Americans are not allowing them to dominate Iraq as the majority. As result, "surge" in American troops is only postponing the day of reckoning, prolonging Iraq's agony.
The Americans should take a look at their own bloody past and let the Iraqis sort out their intramural conflict.
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