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...drafting the law, officials had to tread carefully on explosive ethnic divisions. After decades in which Saddam barred Kurds from drilling in the resource-rich north, Kurdish officials suspected that the Shi'ite-dominated government in Baghdad would try to seize control of their resource. So the new law would let regional governments negotiate directly with foreign firms. Each contract would need approval from a new Baghdad-based Federal Oil and Gas Council, in which each ethnic group will be represented. The council has 60 days to challenge a contract and send its objections to arbitration. A separate revenue-sharing...
...surge was designed to carve out a quiet space in which compromise rather than violence would rule. On this front, there is not much good news. Al-Maliki does not appear to need - or even want - to lead any hard negotiations. That's largely because the three major Shi'ite blocs in the Iraqi government are operating under what they feel is a historical mandate to undo centuries of injustice against them by Sunnis. In practice, this means giving the Sunnis no quarter in negotiations. "The Shi'ites feel they are carrying the burden of history and that they will...
...story. It is more about Iraq's recent past than about its future. It is almost irrelevant to the continuing political meltdown in Baghdad, the utter inability of Iraqis to figure out a way to govern themselves. It has little or nothing to do with the country's Shi'ite majority. Indeed, the U.S. military has had comparatively little interaction with Shi'ites outside Baghdad during the occupation. That task was left to the British and other coalition forces stationed in the Shi'ite heartland down south...
...brigade or two from Anbar and the north, but that will be politics, not policy. And policy-the question of what, if any, role the U.S. military should have in Iraq-is where the congressional questioning should focus. Will Petraeus propose moving U.S. troops into the restive Shi'ite south? What will he do about Basra, the crucial southern oil port where the British retreat has left slow-motion anarchy, a Shi'ite gang war? What will he do about Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi Army, the most powerful and popular force in Shi'ite Iraq? The general...
...certainly been the neoconservative line. Crocker, however, isn't so sure. In a recent conversation, he said, "We are getting some feelers from southern tribes who are tired of JAM," referring to the Jaish al-Mahdi, the Sadr militia. But, he continued, "tribal identities are stronger among Sunnis." Shi'ites tend to adhere to larger social structures, like the two prominent family dynasties in Shi'ite Iraq-the Sadrs and the Hakims. "It has a lot to do with Shi'ites' traditional underdog status," he said. Actually, Crocker seems constitutionally averse to grand strategies attempted by outside forces. "One thing...