Cole In Salon

Cole in Salon.com on Shiite-on-Shiite Violence

My article, “Shiite vs. Shiite,” is out in Salon.com.

excerpt:

‘ Among the best-selling jewelry items in Iraq today is a pendant consisting of a whole map of the country. It’s the symbol of a national unity many Iraqis see slipping away, because now even the majority Shiites are fighting among themselves.

The ongoing ethnic cleansing and piecemeal partition of Iraq most often takes place along ethnic and sectarian lines. Kurds fight Arabs, Sunnis fight Shiites, and so on. The recent battles in Diwaniyah, Karbala and Basra, however, raise the specter of Shiite-on-Shiite violence, and on a level that may pull in coalition troops and further imperil the U.S. mission in Iraq. ‘

Read the whole thing.