Trouble Brewing --------------------------------- by Felicia Van Stolk, Student Editor On the surface, Basra seems to be a prime example of success in iraq. Less than 2% of attacks take place in the bustling city. But what is actually behind this apparent success? The politicians who govern Bosra are said to be primarily fundamentalist Shiites. Many of these leaders have loyalty of their own militias, which are the real muscle in Bosra. Civilians and police agree. One officer said: “The militia and the police work closely together to protect the people, and the milities have better intelligence than we do.” But who exactly are these powerful, intellegent militias? There are primarily two groups in Bosra. One is trained and funded by Iran, which is an Islamic state dominated by the Shiite sect. The other is loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shiite religious leader. This means that the two most powerful forces in Bosar are Shiite-led. These militia, although apparently keeping the peace, are troubling news and a threat to peace in Iraq. For centuries Iraq has been plagued by religious tension and war. This tension is generally between Shiites, who are the majority of the population and the new leadership, versus the Sunni minority. With Saddam Hussein (a Sunni) out of power, the Sunni’s are now very much underrepresented in the political and military arena, leaving them vulnerable to attack. To add to the tension, personal vendettas between leaders, who have the loyalty of the militias, play out as disputes for resources and power. In this sense, the lives of Sunnis are not safe. The U.S. presence only exacerbates these historical conflicts. The “insurgents” (mostly Sunni rebels) have three main targets: American soldiers and reporters (who are mostly well secures), and the Iraqi army (which is primarily Shiites, and is also very secure). That leaves the third target, the Shiite civilians. In this way, the presence of U.S. armed forces has only intensified the struggle between Sunnis and Shiites, leaving one group (the Sunnis) desperately out of power, causing them to strike back in the only way they see possible: at Shiite civilians. ...