While I think she's exaggerating, I agree that Saddam made this conflict larger by privileging the Sunnis. But she said that the Shi'ites and Sunnis had been united as "Iraqis" when the Brits ruled the roost, united against the Brits of course. Didn't the Brits apply their usual divide-and-rule medicine? did pre-Saddam Ba'athists do so also?
I would guess that the US occupiers are also applying divide-and-rule by favoring the Shi'ites, though it's hard to see the US as having enough control of the country to do so at this time. -- Jim Devine / Bust Big Brother Bush! "There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality." -- Pablo Picasso