Nearly Half of Iraqis Marry Their Cousins...?

An excerpt from Parade (April 29, 2007):

"What the U.S. Missed in Iraq - A fact of life in Iraq has gotten little press here: Nearly half of all Iraqis marry their first or second cousins. The preferred union is for a daughter to wed the son of her father's brother. In fact, Saddam Hussein married his first cousin, Sajida. 'That's why the shrewdest forecasts about what would happen in Iraq come not from the foreign-policy experts but from sociologists,' says journalist John Tierney, who reported on this phenomenon. Back in 2003, those sociologists warned that Iraq would never be like post-war Japan or Germany, because Iraqis are loyal to their clans and tribes - not to the Iraqi nation. Even today, much of the violence runs along clan lines. The army and police have an uphill battle to prove they can protect Iraqi communities better than the local militias..."