Iraq: Beyond the Point of No Return

Iraq’s communities have now collapsed into an ethno-sectarian civil war.Criminality is rife; the government is a bit-part player; and the coalition is, for want of a better word, clueless. In effect, 2006 will be described as the year in which the civil war finally took hold. Perhaps the destruction of the Askariyya shrine in Samarra last February will be seen as the final straw, with the devastating suicide bombs targeting Shi’as in Sadr City at the end of November indicating that the point of no return had been passed and an existential struggle for survival had truly broken out between Sunnis and Shi’as.All that is left is to manage the conflicts and prevent them becoming a catalyst for much wider instability.