Iraq

My colleague Professor Merriam Jones-Sanchez, who teaches Higher Mathematics at the University of Victoria at Large, and I had a very interesting conversation about ethnomorphology and the Iraq war.
In Iraq, we see a crucible of three distinct ethno-cultural/religous groups (Kurds, Sunnis and Shia), divided by geography, belief, ethnicity and thousands of years of interaction but put into one country due to the post-WWI division of the Mid East by the whims of the victorious allies. Under the rule of Saddam Hussien, the minority Sunnis held sway and power over the more populous Shia and the fiercely independent Kurds, with a partially autonomous state and political structure before the 2003 American Invasion.
The course of the war has not only opened old wounds, but ethnomorphologically changed and raised the stakes of their interaction. As they grind up against each other we see increasing conflict arising, and the divisions growing deeper. Mixed suburbs are slowly disapearing as religous affialiates seek reprieve from dangers like death squads by moving into areas highly populated by their own religous brethren.
The long-term effects of this can only be predicted, but increasing ethnic isolation has almost always lead to long-term economic and political segregation, a result of heavy ghetto-ization. Under such conditions, mutual distrust and misunderstanding flower, creating giant barriers to recconciliation.
Ultimatly, reconcilitation is what is needed to avert civil war or death-squad lawlessness (there is even talk of coups of the weak government), and this will make it very hard.
The solution? No one can know for sure, but reconciliation must start at the local, community level. Solutions don't come from a weak central government, who has a very close relationship with the death squads, they come at the level that the common people are at. The Insurgency, or the Americans depending on your view, won't be defeated until the rug is pulled from under them. End Ghetto-ization, establish strong community rule stemming from strong, semi-autonomous regional groups of provinces (see Kurdistan), only then will a measure of peace be restored, and ethnomorphological phenomena be routed to further stability and life.
These phenomena are two-way roads, and ones like reconciliation through association can be used to benefit all.