February 27, 2006
IT WOULDN'T BE A CIVIL WAR, JUST A DESUNNIFICATION:
Iraqi Sunni Bloc to Rejoin Talks on Government (EDWARD WONG, 2/27/06, NY Times)
Leaders of the main Sunni Arab political bloc have decided to return to suspended talks over the formation of a new government, the top Sunni negotiator said Sunday. The step could help defuse the sectarian tensions that threatened to spiral into open civil war last week after the bombing of a Shiite shrine and the killings of Sunnis in reprisal.That bloodletting has amounted to the worst sectarian violence since the American invasion nearly three years ago, and the possibility of Iraqis killing one another on an even greater scale appears to have helped drive Sunni Arab politicians back to moderation, after they angrily withdrew from negotiations last Thursday.
Since the day Baghdad fell the Shi'ites and Kurds have been eager for democracy and the Sunni opposed. Yet folks in the West think the threat -- or even the actuality -- of Civil War doesn't serve the long term interests of Iraq? Posted by Orrin Judd at February 27, 2006 10:21 AM
It may be the only solution. I hope not, but if the Sunni leadership doesn't get a handle on reality, payback time will be horrendous, and we need to stay out of it.
Posted by: Genecis at February 27, 2006 12:06 PMIs it not true that the fault line in Islam--that between Shia and Sunni--is not theological, but rather political?
In other words, it not as though the sides were debating the Incarnation, or the nature of the Holy Spirit, or the reality of temporal punishment due to sin, but rather which branch of the Cosa Nostra is to rule the RICO.
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 27, 2006 3:50 PMThe argument is theological as well, but it's Shi'a Messianism and past oppression that makes it so similar to judaism and Christianity and thus an ideal religious basis for liberal democracy.
Posted by: oj at February 27, 2006 3:55 PMoj: That sounds so nice, but it's not what the references are saying. The notion that the political division corresponds to a theological one is sometimes seen, but never explained. Muslim sources as well as Western discount theological distinctions between Shia and Sunni in favor of political and historical ones.
Of course this great fault line--"contadiction," they used to say--it to be exploited to our advantage.
An opportunity is presented by the de-Baathification of Iraq to have this entire barbaric atavism tear itself to pieces. If we have brought this off, it will have been a prodigy of statecraft to rival anything Rome or Britain even accomplished.
Posted by: Lou Gots at February 27, 2006 5:09 PMProfound Lou! If only...
Posted by: Genecis at February 27, 2006 5:18 PMLou: That's because the difference between Sunni and Shi'a is exactly the kind of gloss on the Koran of which the skeptics deny Islam is capable.
Posted by: David Cohen at February 27, 2006 6:20 PM