Word: saddamized
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Inter-sect relations, political and personal, began to fray with the approach of Iraq's first post-Saddam election in January 2005. Sunni parties boycotted the poll, allowing a Shi'ite coalition to sweep to power. With an assertiveness that at times bordered on arrogance, the Shi'ite-led government inflamed Sunni resentment. An especially sore point was the mass recruitment into the police and the military of Shi'ite militiamen, some of whom used the immunity of their uniforms to avenge old grudges against Sunnis. Sunni terrorism groups stepped up their bombing campaign, which convinced Shi'ites that...
...Saddam's execution became another flash point. Even Sunnis who had little sympathy for Saddam were incensed that the government chose to hang him at the hour of morning prayers on one of the most sacred Muslim holidays (Iraqi Sunnis celebrated the holiday one day before the Shi'ites). The choice seemed to confirm suspicions that Shi'ite political dominance would be a constant humiliation. "It was their way of telling us, 'We're in charge now, and you are so weak that even your holy days have no meaning anymore,'" says media analyst Kadhim al-Mukhdadi. "That morning...
...glance, this maneuver seems downright hypocritical. We're talking about an Administration that initially claimed it didn't need further U.N. authorization to overthrow Saddam Hussein. But look more closely: what the two cases show is less Bush's à la carte approach to international law than an Administration shrewdly exploiting global pressure to follow international law while advancing presidential power and, at the same time, trying to lend legitimacy to a failing Iraqi court system...
Shortly after Saddam's ouster in 2003, Omar showed up in Iraq. He says he was looking for reconstruction work. Government lawyers say he was helping plan terrorist attacks. In 2004, American troops arrested Omar at his Baghdad home, allegedly finding guns and bomb parts...
...coming to the southern part of the country. In their report, "The Calm Before the Storm: The British Experience in Southern Iraq," Michael Knights and Ed Williams observe that greater Basra "has suffered one of the worst reversals of fortune of any area in Iraq since the fall of Saddam's regime." Once a cosmopolitan city and the center of Iraq's oil industry, the city - under British control - has become a violent maelstrom of warring Islamic elements. While the British initially could patrol the city without helmets, now they travel in heavily armored vehicles. "Basra is increasingly a kleptocracy...