To believe that sectarian fighting started because of a foolish US decision, and ended because of a subsequent wise one, is to ignore the role of sectarianism in a country that straddles the Sunni and Shia worlds and the Turkic and Arab worlds. These divisions, obscured by Saddam’s totalitarianism, never went away.
认为宗派斗争起源于美国的愚蠢决策，终结于后来的明智决策忽视了宗派主义在伊拉克这样一个囊括逊尼派和什叶派、横跨库尔德人和阿拉伯人地盘的国家的作用。这些裂痕虽因萨达姆的集权主义而受到了遏制，但从未消失。