WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Satellite images taken at night show heavily Sunni Arab neighborhoods of Baghdad began emptying before a U.S. troop surge in 2007, graphic evidence of ethnic cleansing that preceded a drop in violence, according to a report published on Friday.

The images support the view of international refugee organizations and Iraq experts that a major population shift was a key factor in the decline in sectarian violence, particularly in the Iraqi capital, the epicenter of the bloodletting in which hundreds of thousands were killed.

Minority Sunni Arabs were driven out of many neighborhoods by Shi'ite militants enraged by the bombing of the Samarra mosque in February 2006. The bombing, blamed on the Sunni militant group al Qaeda, sparked a wave of sectarian violence.

"By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country, and they turned off the lights when they left," geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said in a statement.

"Essentially, our interpretation is that violence has declined in Baghdad because of intercommunal violence that reached a climax as the surge was beginning," said Agnew, who studies ethnic conflict.

Some 2 million Iraqis are displaced within Iraq, while 2 million more have sought refuge in neighboring Syria and Jordan. Previously religiously mixed neighborhoods of Baghdad became homogenized Sunni or Shi'ite Muslim enclaves.

The study, published in the journal Environment and Planning A, provides more evidence of ethnic conflict in Iraq, which peaked just before U.S. President George W. Bush ordered the deployment of about 30,000 extra U.S. troops.

Satellite images show ethnic cleanout in Iraq - Yahoo! News
Anybody else thoroughly unsurprised that there was more than the "surge" which lead to our current situation?
Good thing Saddam wasn't there to do all that!

Why do you think this country has been over run with refugees from Iraq?
If everything was hunky boo, more would have stayed in the country they were born in.

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Salty's Blog

Gee, did you ever stop to consider that the minority that enjoyed the good life at the expense of the majority's freedom, might just not feel too awfully welcome??? If I had been living in abject, enforced poverty while someone else lived in gov't supported prosperity, I think that I might not be too quick to "offer them a cold one".

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."

So you're going to pretend that it's the "bad guys" who are fleeing the area...
Ahh yes. The convenient re-inventing of reality to suit your own political purposes...

I'm sure it had NOTHING to do with the ethnic cleansing that happened WHILE WE WERE IN Iraq.
NOTHING to do with the civil war we helped introduce which caused a HIGHER death rate than before the war...

Must have been all those guys who were choking on the new "sweet air of freedom" in Iraq...

Have you been to a convenience store lately? Or a Pancake House? Motel?
Those people don't exactly look like sheiks to me.
Also there have been an awful big bunch who have come over here to drive a truck for a living. The ones I have spoken with are from all walks of life and education. Just like other truck drivers I've met.

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Salty's Blog

How would you feel if your were part of the privileged class who enjoyed freedom at the expence of the freedom of others and then those others suddenly are the ones in charge? Do you think that you'd feel welcome there? This isn't reinventing anything, it's a basic, undeniable fact. There was about 30% of the Iraqi people who lived the good life while the remaining 70% lived in little better than poverty or worse. This is fact, you can find it at HRW, AI, UN reports, etc. The ethinic battles that were fought, were caused by foreign efforts outside of the Coalition. People who were trying to take control of Iraq from the legally elected gov't. by way of violence. It was the Coalition that stopped them by bringing in the tribal leaders and showing them the benefits of peace and the cost of violence. Yes, it took too long for the big-wigs to figure this out (the guys on the ground had already been using this tactic), but it was the solution. The violence was there, but it was triggered by people who wanted a return to the old ways of Iraq, not those wanting a better future.

BTW - Your report only shows signs that could be interpreted as ethnic cleansing, they could also be interpreted as the scum leaving before they got all killed and stuff. But, that would be a good thing and God knows that all of you BDS suffering liberals cannot have that. If we had reported on the good in Iraq with as much effort as the bad, we'd bee seeing front page articels every day about the progress there, but that would require objective reporting...

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."

..and those same people would have been coming here all along had they had the freedom to do so under the Baathists. Just becuase the doors open and people are coming out of the house does not mean the house is on fire.

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."

If it is truly "undeniable fact", then it won't be any difficulty for you to PROVE your claim.

Specifically, I want you to PROVE your claim that the "refugees from Iraq" are made up primarily by the people who were profiting off of the blood, sweat and tears of the Iraqis under Saddam...


What part of "were driven out" sounds like a voluntary evacuation to you?
And can you explain WHY these people would suddenly decide to leave, of their own volition, right before the surge?
Your explanation makes no sense.

From the article...

Minority Sunni Arabs were driven out of many neighborhoods by Shi'ite militants enraged by the bombing of the Samarra mosque in February 2006. The bombing, blamed on the Sunni militant group al Qaeda, sparked a wave of sectarian violence.

"By the launch of the surge, many of the targets of conflict had either been killed or fled the country, and they turned off the lights when they left," geography professor John Agnew of the University of California Los Angeles, who led the study, said in a statement.

"Essentially, our interpretation is that violence has declined in Baghdad because of intercommunal violence that reached a climax as the surge was beginning," said Agnew, who studies ethnic conflict.

You can continue to deny the facts and try to rewrite history, but it only makes your efforts more transparent.

You're assuming that Agnew's interpretation is correct and the reports from everyone else are wrong. Was there pressure from the Shia to force the Sunni out of certain areas? Absolutely. (If you had people in your neighborhood who were supporting the people who were killing your neighbors, wouldn't you do the same??) Was this the reason for the success of the surge? Only an idiot would believe that, and only the most gullible would think that you could come to the conclusion that the Shiites were forcing out the Sunnis based on satellite images. Were they leaving? Probably. Was it only because of pressure from the Shia?? You've gotta be a special kind of dumb to believe that. They knew the Coalition troops were coming and they knew that they were the ones who were the primary targets of this effort, since they were the biggest supporters of the terrorists. Their ship was sinking and they were bailing out fast. Personally, I just don't have a whole of sympathy for most of the Sunni refugees. They lived high on the hog while their Shia neighbors lived in poverty. I hope that they find a nice place to live, but I'm not going to lose any sleep if they don't.

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Our nation has not always lived up to its ideals, yet those ideals have never ceased to guide us. They expose our flaws, and lead us to mend them. We are the beneficiaries of the work of the generations before us and it is each generation's responsibility to continue that work. - Laura Bush

God is a conservative -

Ecclesiastes 10:2--"A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left."