Excerpts from a New York Times article on Iraqi young people and life in Baghdad:

“I can’t go outside, I can’t go to college,” said Noor, sitting in the kitchen waiting for tea to boil. “If I’m killed, it doesn’t even matter because I’m dead right now.”

...

For Noor, a secular Sunni who is solidly middle class, the sectarian killing has broken squarely into his circle of friends. A friend from Adhamiya, Baghdad’s Sunni Arab center, joined a neighborhood militia after his father was shot to death in front of their home. Noor heard through friends that he had set up a roadside bomb to kill Iraqi troops.

“He hates the Shia because they killed his father,” said Noor, speaking in fluent English and gesturing with his hands. “He became a different person. He became a monster.”

...

“The future is totally unclear for me now,” she said, standing in the courtyard of the school as girls buzzed behind her, busily cleaning classrooms. “I don’t know what would happen to me in college. Maybe I would get killed.”

...

While they serve as useful new social networks, the groups are largely based on sectarian identity, helping to reinforce increasingly homogeneous districts. Safe has no Shiite relatives and no plans to marry. Even if he did, he would never accept a Shiite, he said.

....

Read the whole article here.