A hillbilly's letter to Stars and Stripes

A plea to Iraqis
I am an ordinary American citizen known as a hillbilly, not a redneck. There is a difference: A redneck wears his grandma’s Thanksgiving silver platter as a belt buckle and a hillbilly uses his Grandma’s fine imitation crystal glasses, aka Mason jars, for multiple purposes.
I have been in Iraq for 15 months, and I have flown home a couple of times.
[To the] Iraqis: The view of your land from above is beautiful, left me speechless. Then all of that beauty I was seeing is erased by the stories I have read of all the blood that has covered your land. Whether you are Sunnis, Shiites or Kurds, if you could board a plane and see the beauty of your country from above, I believe you would try harder to come together as a nation. I have been told the Sunnis and Shiites have been at war for thousands of years. It would seem, probably easier said than done, that those differences could be set aside in order for your elected government to get your country on its own.
If you keep killing each other at the rate you are, the only Iraqis who are going to be left are the ones living in other countries.
If I were an Iranian or Syrian military adviser, I would be home relaxing, just waiting for a call to let me know “It’s time to move into Iraq, the Iraqis have successfully killed each other off.”
Doesn’t being an Iraqi mean anything to you, or is being a Sunni or Shiite more important than being an Iraqi and having your own country?
Please attempt to make me understand what appears to be your country’s demise.

David H. Thompson Jr.
Camp Anaconda, Iraq

Other than a few technical errors (Islam is only 1400 years old), David isn't too far from the truth....talking to the Iraqis that work on base quickly reveals their frustration with the different sects in Iraq turning against each other. Sunni Muslims used to be in power (Saddam was Sunni), but are the Country's minority. Shiites now have power in the Iraqi government, but it seems the balance of power between the different groups of Muslims in Iraq is something they just can't overcome.....at least not anytime soon.