Word: sunni
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...whole. I hope we see more of the Bush who campaigned from the center in 2000 than the Bush who governed from the extreme right in 2004. But even if these hopes are dashed, he needs national support in the critical battle for Fallujah and throughout the Sunni triangle in Iraq. The military is poised for one of the bloodiest and most difficult of all its campaigns since the actual invasion. We cannot let them--or the Iraqi people--down. In the run-up to the Iraqi elections, on which hinges so much of the future...
...January elections, an essential step toward Bush's goal of creating a stable nation. There's little question that with Bush in charge, the vote will happen on schedule. Yet pulling it off in a broadly credible fashion presents a daunting challenge. For the most restive parts of the Sunni triangle, the latest U.S. plan is to entice Sunni rejectionists to join the political process while at the same time fight to eliminate unrelenting jihadis. The U.S. will need to take back 22 rebel-held cities, by force where necessary, if residents there are to have any hope of voting...
...consequences in terms of souring Iraqis’ attitudes toward the American presence. The attempt to shut down al-Sadr’s newspaper, for example, provoked a massive rebellion, which was surely not worth the price. Attacking Falluja has provided the Muslim Scholars Association, an influential group of Sunni clerics who have threatened to boycott upcoming elections, new ammunition for criticizing the occupation. This is not a propitious sign...
...insurgents have not simply been waiting for the Marines in Fallujah. Instead, they have dramatically escalated their actions elsewhere, killing 85 people in a series of attacks throughout the Sunni triangle and in Baghdad since Friday, possibly hoping that opening up new fronts away from Fallujah might ease pressure on the city and also to signal that even after the city falls, the fight will continue elsewhere. Particularly symbolic in that respect were Friday's coordinated bomb and mortar attacks in Samarra, a town recaptured from rebels by U.S. and Iraqi forces only weeks...
...even greater concern to Allawi and his backers than insurgent actions elsewhere, however, may be the political fallout from Fallujah. The battle's long-term impact will be measured in light of the contest between the Coalition and the insurgents for Sunni hearts and minds in Iraq. The insurgency has been sustained by a strong nationalist sentiment among Sunnis, who had been the dominant social group in Saddam Hussein's Iraq - indeed, ever since the country was first created by Britain. A widely held sense of uncertainty over their future as a minority in a democratic Iraq had been compounded...