And the country was relatively safe. Disbanding the Baathists completely created the need for the militias to protect the people from crime, and that's expanded into the insurgency and civil war. As was predicted and foreseen by everyone except those who believe their own propaganda. Obviously, that's a ridiculous mistake.

"Neighborhoods in the east — most vulnerable to militias from Sadr City, the largest eastern district and one of its poorest — have lost much of their minority Sunni populations since February.

"Even the solidly middle class neighborhoods of Zayuna and Ghadier, very mixed as little as six months ago, are starting to lose Sunnis.

"This is the fault line now," said the Iraqi official, pointing to an area in western Baghdad near Mansour. "It's at the west of the west."

"The general, a Shiite who commands a brigade in western Baghdad, said he blamed Iraqi political leaders, both Sunni and Shiite, and the militias they command.

"Now we face a new style of splitting the neighborhoods," he said. He asked that his name not be used because he could be killed for talking. "The politicians are doing this."

Arf