by Robert Collins

Created on: October 21, 2010   Last Updated: October 26, 2010

Baghdad, Iraq and the Middle-East has been one of the most tumultuous regions on the planet and will forever be grid-locked in war. "The only way to end it is with strong, ruthless and tireless military action," according to my friend Ali, an Iraqi born interpreter, who was killed during my stint as an Infantryman in Baghdad.

It is impossible to understand the conflict that surrounds Iraq and Baghdad without understanding the cultural dynamics within it's boarders. The largest force that drives the conflict in Iraq - you guessed it, religion, but it isn't the Christianity versus Islam or East versus West that we've all grown to know, it actually is Islam versus Islam.

Upon the death of Muhammad, Islam was divided into two houses: Shia and the Sunni. Shia wanting to vote on the next leader of the faith and the Sunni hoping that Muhammad's descendants would carry the torch into the future. Needless to say, as it is with any strong belief system, lives were lost and cities were burned all in the name of faith. The Sunnis found a strong following in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and the Shia placed their capitol in Iran, placing Baghdad in a religious no man's land until the occupation of the Ottoman Turks in 1534.

The Shia and the Sunnis in Baghdad saw very little sectarian violence under the iron fist of the Ottoman Empire and even less under Saddam Hussein, which ironically Hussein, in Arabic, means good.  The problem though is that just because there is little or no sectarian violence in the streets of Baghdad doesn't mean it isn't flailing about beneath the surface like fish in a frozen lake.

On the surface the Ba'ath party, a secular group mostly made up of Sunnis, called the shots and violently struck down any opposition.

Tensions became tight and cultures clashed when Sunni controlled Iraq went to war, aided by the Americans, against the Shia controlled Iran.

Interestingly enough the population of Baghdad was mostly Shia and their opinions, ideas and complaints were met with apathy or in some cases violence. Anyone who has studied a history book knows what happens when a people are violently oppressed for long periods of time: eventually the boot is lifted off their neck and they rise up to return the favor.

That boot was finally lifted in the shadow of the the Iraqi invasion in 2003 by the United States following intelligence of a nuclear arsenal from a credible source, no weapons were found. The Americans did however topple the current Sunni control

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