Separate Iraqis, Utahn urges

Separate them — the Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites — and help them establish their own countries. That's one returning Utah soldier's view of what should happen in Iraq as the four-year anniversary of the U.S. invasion of that nation approaches this month.

Whether Army Spc. Joshua Allen's solution would be possible is one question, but the violence he observed is undeniable.

"They're still bombing each other," Allen said at the Salt Lake City International Airport on Friday.

Over 100 Shiites were killed Tuesday in Baghdad when two bomb blasts ripped a religious procession. The killings were blamed on Sunni insurgents.

This month alone, at least 25 U.S. troops have died in Iraq, including Army Sgt. Brandon A. Parr of West Valley City, who along with two other soldiers died last Saturday in a bomb blast in Baghdad.

Allen, 25, of Taylorsville, and fellow Army Reservist Sgt. Ashton Call, 24, of Providence, caught a Delta Air Lines flight from Colorado for their final leg home. They returned to Utah after spending about a year at the Tallil Air Base in southern Iraq, where their job was to store and distribute ammunition for U.S. troops.

"There's not much we can do," Allen said about trying to stop what some have called a civil war in Iraq. "I think the only way to stop it is to separate them."

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reported this past week that Iraq's parliament is considering a proposal to divide the nation's oil revenue among the Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds in the north. The move could help abate the economic worries of the Sunni Arabs, according to a recent New York Times article.

Here in Utah, Allen's wife, Vanessa, is just happy her soldier is home safe. "It's just hard not being able to talk to him," she said after jumping into his arms for a long embrace.

Neither she nor Call's wife, Shanda, wanted to offer their take on the question of "What now?" in Iraq.

Shanda went so far as to ignore the news of events, good or bad, in Iraq as a means of coping with the dangers her husband faced during his first deployment there.

"My husband thinks there's a purpose for us being there, so I support it," she said. "I've tried not to pay too much attention while's he's been out there. I just support him — I'm glad he's home."