Mired in Iraq's inter-communal war.

Baghdad's Adhamiya neighborhood, a Sunni Muslim enclave in the northern part of the city, has been the site of intense and bloody fighting between Sunni insurgents and U.S. troops. Its Abu Hanifa Mosque was the scene of Saddam Hussein's last public appearance prior to the fall of Baghdad in 2003. By any measure, the community would seem to be a hotbed of anti-U.S. sentiment.

Yet, as the July 17 New York Times points out, "when an American convoy rolled in recently, a remarkable message rang out" from the loudspeakers of the mosque, a place of worship that had been used to rally resistance to the U.S. forces.

"The American Army is coming with the Iraqi Army--do not shoot," urged the message. "They are here to help you." With Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias now prowling the neighborhood and killing people with impunity, Sunni leaders now welcome U.S. troops as protection.

Throughout Iraq, "many Sunni Arab political and religious leaders once staunchly opposed to the American presence ... are now saying they need American troops to protect them from the rampages of Shiite militias and Shiite-run government forces," reports a Times dispatch from Baghdad. "The Sunnis also view the Americans as a 'bulwark against Iranian actions here,' a senior American diplomat said."

Accordingly, the same Sunni radicals who wanted to evict U.S. troops now want them to stay until the threat from Iranian-backed militias is abated.

Apart from demonstrating the folly of creating a power vacuum in Iraq that Tehran was able to exploit, this development illustrates how U.S. forces are being sucked into the morass of an ethnic conflict that may last for decades or longer.