September 3, 2007 (LPAC)-- When the White House makes its report to Congress on "progress" made under the recent troop "surge", one of the benchmarks they will no doubt point to is a reduction in insurgent attacks. A feature article in this week's Newsweek, entitled "Baghdad's New Owners," makes clear the reason for this: its not "peace," its persecution. Ethnic cleansing of predominantly Sunni neighborhoods in the western half of Baghdad has been largely completed, with the Shia militias now firmly in control. This has helped to create a humanitarian nightmare in the country, where IDPs (internally displaced persons) now amount to over 1.1 million, with 200,000 in Baghdad alone.

Iraq's capital city was once one of relative religious toleration, neighborhoods were mixed, with both Sunni (the minority but politically dominant Islamic sect of Saddam Hussein) and Shiite sects living together. As recently as 2006, this was still the case. Now, says a U.S. official, "the majority" of Baghdad's neighborhoods are Shia-dominated. The change began in February, 2006, signaled by the bombing of the Askariya shrine in Samarra. Since that time, residents of Sunni dominated neighborhoods have been targeted, threatened and harassed into fleeing for their lives, abandoning house and home in the process. Neighborhoods have seen their power cut, received letters with bullets in them, and seen threatening graffiti painted on their homes. This process has been very profitable for the Shia militias, who then rent the abandoned homes to the highest bidder, with the promise of "security" included.

U.S. "surge" strategy has been to establish Command Outpost (COP) Attack facilities to defend what are now mere enclaves of Sunni desperadoes. COP Attack posts are surrounded by bomb barriers, and troops are shot at (by Shia militia) on a regular basis. The rationale had been that militia attacks would lessen as the Sunni insurgents were defeated. However, one is tempted to say "predictably," the opposite happened: the militias got bolder with success. Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno, the top ground commander in Iraq, told Newsweek that, in July, 73% of American fatalities and injuries in Baghdad were caused by Shiite fighters. For the first time since 2003, Shiite militants carried out as many attacks on Coalition forces as Sunni insurgents did.

This might explain why, as the White House claims "success," the death toll of U.S. soldiers hasn't lessened one bit.