Attempting to halt the process is futile; nurturing it with policies that encourage non-violent, non-sectarian change - even if it means a redrawing of the region's map and regime change - will ultimately far better serve the reestablishment of regional peace and security.
"Turbulence" in the Middle East, including worsening sectarian tensions and changes in regional dynamics, have implications for Australia.
He stared for a moment at a placard that read, "Change the sectarian system — toward a state of citizenship".
But unless the authorities take the sectarian threat seriously, the change of local government will hardly help the Shias.
Nor is it evident that the limited action the cautious Mr Obama might contemplate air strikes, but no boots on the ground would give America the leverage it would need to force Mr Maliki to change his sectarian ways or to stand down in favour of a less divisive successor.
To add to this complexity, a prominent feature of low- and middle-income countries is internal and international migration due to wars, sectarian violence, and climate change, and for economic reasons, to name a few causes.
A Rangers player says that sectarian abuse means he changes his phone number every week, and a Celtic player, Neil Lennon, quit his national team (Northern Ireland) because of death threats.Concern had been rising already.
The highly sectarian government in Iraq changed.
But in the past week or two, the nature of the protest shifted — and so did any hope that demands for change would cross sectarian lines and unite Bahrainis in a cohesive democracy movement.
Nonetheless, here we are in 2014, when profound change, revolution and sectarian violence characterize the Middle East like never before, and the older, grayer and not noticeably wiser members of the old Clinton "peace team" are still making their mark.
The no-fly zone, if you could in place one and you are willing to take the risk of doing it?" WILL: It seems that you're absolutely right that there's an illusion here that a superpower can tiptoe on little cat's feet into a sectarian civil war and not change the dynamic fundamentally and not become a chief protagonist.
