Word: faction
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...Whatever the outcome of their negotiation, both Bhutto and Musharraf seem to have overestimated the dictator's popularity. More than a dozen parliamentarians from Musharraf's own party have defected to Sharif's faction, and Bhutto's PPP is also fracturing over the prospect of supporting Musharraf. Even with Bhutto's backing, it is no longer certain that Musharraf could muster the votes to retain the presidency. "He is in a shoestring situation," says Iftikhar Gilani, the former Law Minister under Bhutto. "He needs each vote, and he doesn't have a clear majority. Once he starts counting the votes...
...That's because there are unmistakable risks to the new Sunni alliance. Arming the Sunnis against al-Qaeda is fine, but if they tire of their alliance with Washington, they become just another faction armed with U.S. weapons. Shi'ites and Kurds worry that the Sunni tribesmen who are fighting alongside American troops now have little or no loyalty to the Iraqi government and would just as soon turn their guns on Iraqi forces as on al-Qaeda. In addition, strengthening a Sunni stronghold in the middle of the country goes a ways toward cementing the very partitioning of Iraq...
...That doesn't mean the Democrats will stop trying. A faction of Democrats has sought to make some kind of vote on the Iraq war a regular occurrence, simply to force Republicans to go on the record as supporting Bush. It is likely that some of the votes that take place this fall will be as much about the future of Congress as about the future of Iraq. There are a dozen Republicans in both houses who are in very tight races next year. A vote for the status quo, Democrats believe, is priceless advertising fodder in the coming election...
...Some officers at the Pentagon want deeper cuts - and want them sooner - believing that the surge will keep the Army stretched too thin for too long. Virginia Senator John Warner, who is as close to the admirals and generals as anyone on Capitol Hill, cast his lot with this faction when he called recently for a reduction of 5,000 troops this year. Such a move would be more symbolic than real, changing little on the ground. And it would still leave a key question unanswered: What U.S. strategy could avert the wider bloodshed that looks inevitable in the wake...
...part of the shuffle, Abe's close ally, former foreign minister Taro Aso, now becomes party secretary general; his place is taken by legislator Nobutaka Machimura, the head of the LDP's biggest faction. Civilian appointee Hiroya Masuda, a former prefectural governor and regional reformer, becomes Abe's interior minister in charge of addressing the concerns rural voters left out of Japan's urban-centered economic recovery. Popular LDP member of parliament Yoichi Masuzoe, a vocal critic of Abe's, will become minister of health, labor and welfare. It's an important but uncoveted position: Masuzoe must untangle the mishandling...