Posted By:
Cobby33Jeff-
Wasn't that "religion of peace" coined by, or at least adopted by, George W. Bush? I think that Islam, as with all religions (take away the radical factions), in their purest form, preach peace.
At any rate, I'm not sure the problems in that area (correct, not restricting to Iraq), have been Muslim v. Muslim. For "thousands of years," (loosely speaking), the Middle East has been fought over by the Arabs (Muslims), the Jews and the Christians.
This, of course, was aggravated post WWII when the U.N. Security Council (controlled mainly by Western countires)re-drew national boundaries, allowing Israel to be the sovreign state of the Jews. This, of course, didn't sit well with the "native" Arabs, who felt that a part of their native land was being taken from them. Of course, the Israel/Syira war didn't help matters either, but that's a different topic.
So- my point was, this area of the world has been a hotbed for hundreds (maybe not thousands) of years and has only gotten worse in the last 60 years- certainly not something the U.S. can cure in a few years. Add to that the "radical" factions and it becomes almost an impossible task.