One question that I’ve been wondering about is why terrorists (or guerillas, or insurgents, if you prefer) would want to start a civil war between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq. Obviously there is plenty of friction between the various ethnic and religious groups in Iraq, but this conflict isn’t manifesting itself that way. Instead there are some shadowy actors that are committing terrorist attacks against Shiites in hope of inciting them to violence. The only answer that makes sense to me is that whoever is behind these attacks hopes that everyone in Iraq will reject the occupation due to the ongoing violence. If Shiites feel that they’re under constant attack and that the occupiers are not protecting them, then they will demand that the occupiers leave so that they can protect themselves. Killing occupation forces is hard and getting harder, and more than that, it has worked as well as it’s going to work — we’re handing over sovereignty this summer. So the terrorists instead recruit people to kill other Iraqis, and exploit the bigotry of their recruits to do so. The fact that people on the scene of the attacks threw rocks at American soldiers who showed up to help out in their aftermath would seem to indicate that this strategy is working.