Anti-IS Sunnis think they should be armed again, as they were when the Americans fought al-Qaeda in Iraq, IS\u2019s predecessor. But nobody is willing to give them weapons. \u201cWe wanted a national army,\u201d\u009d says Ghazi Faisal al-Kuaud, a tribesman fighting alongside the government in Ramadi. \u201cInstead they formed the Shia equivalent of IS.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
And Shia distrust of the Sunnis grows at a pace that matches that of the losses from its militias. Overlooking Najaf\u2019s sprawling tombs, gravediggers talk of the brisk business they are doing burying militiamen. \u201cI\u2019ve never had it so busy,\u201d\u009d says one. \u201cNot even after 2003 or 2006 [the height of Iraq\u2019s civil war].\u201d\u009d The Sunnis \u201cnever accepted losing power from the time of Imam Ali, so why would they now?\u201d\u009d asks Haider, a Shia shop owner. \u201cWherever you find Sunnis and you give them weapons, you will find IS,\u201d\u009d says Bashar, a militiaman. Many Shias feel that the fight against IS justifies them in excluding Sunnis from government and the security apparatus.<\/p>\n
The state that IS wanted to build looks more unlikely than ever to become a lasting reality, and that is good. The ruined territory on which it hoped to build, though, may end up even more damaged than it was at the outset.<\/p>\n