Increased violence in Iraq, but against whom?

Watching the bomb-go-boom-many-people-die reporting from Iraq on network news, an interesting fact appears in the fog. The increased violence is primarily Shia militia and death squads killing Sunni. You don’t hear much about Al Qaeda anymore since the Baathists got tired of them and probably fingered Zarqawi and started talking about amnesty. Now what we are seeing is the Shia, who have been remarkably restrained until now, starting to get even. This is not a good thing of course, but it is not directed at the Americans or at the Iraqi government. It is directed at the Sunni. The Sunni are even asking the Americans to stay to protect them. If this escalates into all-out civil war between Shia and Sunni, it would be very bad, but there isn’t really any doubt about who would win. As long as this revenge killing is stopped well short of genocide, it could conceivably turn out OK. It is actually an improvement that the violence is no longer about Islamism versus democracy or a restoration of Baathism. It is now mostly about revenge and the Sunni seem about ready to throw in the towel in exchange for survival.