An end of sectarianism in Iraq? The establishment of a stable multiparty parliamentary democracy in Iraq? I still rather suspect that the political character of Islam and ancient hatreds between Sunnis and Shi'ites will reassert themselves, but history has taken surprising turns in the past. Certainly the jihad efforts about which the West should be most concerned are not in Iraq today, but in Europe and the United States: no official has yet noticed the stealth jihad. "Sunni bloc rejoins Iraqi cabinet," from the BBC, July 19 (thanks to the Constantinopolitan Irredentist):
The main Sunni Muslim bloc in Iraq has rejoined the Shia-led government, in what correspondents called an important step for national reconciliation.The return of six ministers from the Accordance Front to the cabinet was approved by lawmakers.
The Sunni bloc withdrew almost a year ago following a row over power-sharing.
A spokesman for the Accord Front said its return was "a real step forward for political reform" in the predominantly Shia country.
The spokesman, Salim al-Joubouri, added that the bloc's approved candidates would attend the next cabinet meeting.
Most of them are new faces nominated by the party.
Their return is especially significant ahead of provincial elections that are expected later this year, the BBC's Jim Muir in Baghdad says.
Crackdown on militants
The move is also a sign of changed and considerably improved times, our correspondent says.
The Accord Front's main reason for leaving the cabinet last August was that the government and security apparatus were dominated by Shia factions with an allegedly sectarian agenda.
The main thrust of security operations at that time was against Sunni-based insurgents, and many thousands of Sunnis were detained, our correspondent says.
But in February, many prisoners were freed under a new amnesty law.
This spring, Iraqi security forces, along with American troops, also launched a concerted crackdown on the Shia militias, especially Moqtada Sadr's Mehdi Army.
A number of Sunni Arab states have also been persuaded to revive their diplomatic presence and activities in Baghdad - another demand of the Iraqi Sunnis, our correspondent says.
On Saturday, Iraqi parliament also voted another four ministers to replace those from Moqtada Sadr's political bloc.
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"The main Sunni Muslim bloc in Iraq has rejoined the Shia-led government, in what correspondents called an important step for national reconciliation."
-- from the article above
Bets want to be taken on this "national reconciliation" about which we will hear so much? By the way, this kind of talk is good, if under its cover, or even by those who believe this stuff in good faith, the Americans withdraw. By all means, let's declare that the "national reconciliation" is well underway, and withdraw under that pretext, if the real reason to withdraw is judged by some to be too unseemly, too cold-blodded, to state openly.
One thinks about this kind of report what one thinks of the report by Michael Slackman in The Times two days ago, all about how "peace" or at least "peace talks" are breaking out all over, as is demonstrated, writes the terminally naive Slackman, so impressed by the new spiirit of peace and reconciliation he detects in Lebanon (where Hezbollah is in fact moving its forces into every conceivable village and town, especially in the south) and by the "new" spirit exhibited by the corpses-for-live-chidlkillers exchange engaged in by Israel and Hezbollah, and by the negotiations that Bashir Assad hints at,as long as Israel rolls over and plays dead in its dealings with Syria, giving it everything demanded, including the Golan which long ago officially incorporated into Israel (what a precedent that would set for Jerusalem, if Israel gave up the Golan), and of course the new spirit of peace, as Micheal Slackman sees it in his report from Beirut (he was just as naive in his previous reporting from Cairo, where he never could get below the surface of things), being shown by the Islamic Republic of Iran. .