May 7, 2018
THANKS, W:
Iraq's prime minister is making electoral history in the former jewel of the Islamic State (Tamer El-Ghobashy and Mustafa Salim May 6, 2018, Washington Post)
In advance of national elections next weekend, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is the front-runner here, and if he ultimately prevails, he will make political history as a Shiite politician in this overwhelmingly Sunni city.The electoral strength of Abadi and his ticket in Mosul, the country's second-largest city, underscores his nationwide popularity and bodes well for his reelection, which U.S. officials have repeatedly indicated they would like to see.But beyond that, Abadi's success in a place that had been the jewel of the Islamic State -- an extremist Sunni group -- would represent an opening for cooperation between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in a country long bedeviled by sectarian grievance and violence.
The conversion from Far War to Near War, the winning of the latter and the spread and routinization of democracy in the Shi'asphere is a historic achievement. Now for the Sunni states....
Posted by Orrin Judd at May 7, 2018 4:11 AM