"After Isis: Kurds and Arabs return to old lives and ..." Topic

…new tensions.

"In Iraqi areas recaptured by peshmerga from Islamic State neighbours are turning on each other as population movement redraws the map.

When Shvan, who is a Kurd, returned home to Zumar in north-west Iraq and saw his property had been reduced to rubble, he found an empty house belonging to an Arab and moved his family in.

Now, life is gradually returning to the town, which was seized by Islamic State in August 2014 then captured by Kurdish forces with coalition air cover in October. A schoolgirl with a satchel on her back walks home past shattered buildings while men sell meat and vegetables by the roadside. There are plans to restore water and electricity…"
Full article here
link

When we read stories like this …. we cannot help but feel that Iraq's sectarian divisions will never be placated, certainly not in our lifetime!

Amicalement
Armand

Agree. Sad, but true, and not just for Iraq. Two steps forward, one step back, one step forward, two steps back, three steps forward, do the hokey pokey, attack, attack, attack!

Europe's ethnic divisions (or some of them anyway) were only settled after WWII by means of mass ethnic cleansing and resettlement of whole populations. And it took the horror of WWII and naked force in the post-war period to make it possible.

So no, I am not awfully hopeful in the short to medium term either.

Partially this is because "Iraq" is a political fiction. One of the remnants of the age of nation state building.

Old habits die hard … and not only in Iraq and that region, but add A'stan to that mix. I've said this before, and it may not be totally accurate from a historical standpoint. But watch one of the last scenes in Lawerance Of Arabia. When all the Arab tribes are in Damascus "discussing" whose fault it is why there is no eletricity, running water, etc., etc. … very enlightening … and prophetic … I have said it before, you can't free a fish from water …