Rosen, Nir. “Iraq is the republic of fear.” The Washington Post, May 28, 2006.

Summary: The civil war in Iraq has now arrived:

Under the reign of Saddam Hussein, dissidents called Iraq “"the republic of fear” and hoped it would end when Hussein was toppled. But the war, it turns out, has spread the fear democratically. Now the terror is not merely from the regime, or from U.S. troops, but from everybody, everywhere. ...

The sectarian tensions have overtaken far more than Iraq's security forces and its streets. Militias now routinely enter hospitals to hunt down or arrest those who have survived their raids. And many Iraqi government ministries are now filled with the banners and slogans of Shiite religious groups, which now exert total control over these key agencies. If you are not with them, you are gone.

The author supports these general claims with several detailed accounts of specific acts of violence and sectarian folly.