THE TRAGEDY OF THE OCCUPATION...:

The changing Sunni mindset

With broad swaths of Iraq now freed from Islamic State terror, Sunni Arab Iraqis appear to have had three epiphanies.

First, they understand the true horror that their Shiite and Kurdish compatriots suffered under Saddam. Most no longer deny or minimize that suffering. They empathize.

Second, Sunnis see that the Shiite dominated government in Baghdad and largely Shiite militias are not necessarily adversaries. Indeed, thousands of Iraqi Shiite soldiers and volunteers lost their lives to free Sunni towns and cities.

And, third, many Iraqi Sunni Arabs have recognized the failures of their own leadership. Sunni political leaders who incited against Baghdad locally and internationally did nothing for the Sunni Arab community in their time of great crisis. The old guard still makes the rounds of Amman, Jordan; London; and Washington, but those they claim to represent have largely abandoned them. That these failed leaders now demand a delay in Iraq's elections has less to do with allowing displaced persons to return and more to do with preserving their own power since they will likely suffer electoral embarrassment the next time their constituents go to the polls.

Tweet   @brothersjudd