Is the U.S. Pursuing a "Divide and Conquer" Strategy in Iraq?

Why wouldn’t the U.S. bomb Shiite holy places in Iraq and shift the blame to Sunnis? Why wouldn’t the U.S. want a civil war in Iraq? Hasn’t the U.S. Always pursued "divide and conquer" strategies, starting with the earliest days of conquering the native inhabitants of Turtle Island?

Didn’t the British allies of the U.S. get caught with SAS soldiers in Arab garb driving around Basra with bomb-making materials in their vehicle? Weren’t the Brits so concerned over the capture of their covert operators by Iraqi police that they broke them out of custody, using tanks to destroy a local jail?

Anyone who doubts that the U.S. wouldn’t deliberately provoke hostility within the Iraqi population is naive, ignorant, or stupid. Didn’t the U.S. set up an Iraqi constitution that subdivided the nation by religion and culture in order to provoke resource disputes between the subdivisions?

Wouldn’t a united Iraq that insisted on full Iraqi sovereignty and control of Iraqi assets and wealth be a bigger challenge to U.S. hegemony that a divided Iraq, no matter how great the intra-Iraqi violence patterns?

After all, the U.S. personnel can stay relatively safe within the Green Zone or military bases with patrol aircraft and mechanized infantry providing security while Iraqis blow the hell out of each other all over the country.

The U.S. can send Navy Seals or Delta Force operatives to bomb golden mosques or any other locations they can get access to. Haven’t U.S. personnel been photographed in native garb in Afghanistan? Why wouldn’t they do the same in Iraq?

Divide and Conquer. That strategy is as old as warfare itself. Much is at stake, and letting the divided enemy self-destruct is much more painless than head-on confrontation.