Shopowners flee mixed Baghdad areas

[Barrett808]

Source: Associated Press

Shopowners flee mixed Baghdad areas
By DIAA HADID, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD - Shiite taxi driver Aly Kaabi used to fear for his life each time his Mercedes needed a spare part. The place to seek replacements was a Sunni-dominated Baghdad neighborhood ruled at the time by militants from al-Qaida in Iraq.

Now, Kaabi gets his car fixed in a new industrial zone in an east Baghdad Shiite stronghold, itself a mirror image of another that has emerged in a Sunni-dominated western neighborhood.

The sectarian strife that first separated Baghdad's residents is now splitting its businesses — suggesting the divisions are becoming permanent.

The simple interactions that make up normal life in cities around the world — buying gas, going to a grocery store, fixing your car — are now conducted along strictly sectarian lines.

Despite a dramatic drop in violence and the expulsion of many al-Qaida in Iraq extremists over the last six months, many customers and shop owners in the capital say they will not return to their old mixed neighborhoods, fearing a revival of the bloodshed.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071228/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_sectarian_mechanics

[msongs]

1. bush and MOST congresspersons support ethnic cleansing as policy in Iraq nt

[sabra]

3. they have decided to go with ethnic cleansing over genocide

Mission Accomplished? :-(

[Barrett808]

5. That does seem to have been the implicit "surge" strategy, at least in Baghdad

:(

[ixion]

2. wow... look how much better things are there

:sarcasm:

[damntexdem]

4. Is Iraq better off without Saddam?

Hey, Condi: ask those who have died in sectarian violence.

[ShockediSay]

6. How 'bout a Sesame St message re 'Cooperation' and 'Strength in Diversity'

sell THAT to our hard core anti-immigration RighteousWing nuts

[humbled_opinion]

7. Surge is working alert...

:sarcasm: