Word: sectarianism
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...already begun a $155 million program designed to provide vocational education and job training to CLCs. But, as with many initiatives in Iraq, the jobs program will, in the end, depend on the Iraqi government. It has pledged $155 million of its own. But Iraq's corrupt and sectarian government has so far been unable to move forward on basic issues like how to share oil revenue. Its willingness and ability to administer a jobs program for Sunni men is questionable to say the least...
...question the Awadis and hundreds of thousands of other exiled Baghdadis ask every day. The bloody sectarian war that drove them from their city having abated, the temptation to return has grown. In recent weeks, several thousand refugees have journeyed home--mostly from Syria, which has introduced tough new visa regulations designed to send back Iraqis and turn away new waves at the border. Many had simply run through their life's savings and could no longer afford exile. (The Iraqi government has offered cash, free transport from the border and other inducements for those who agree to go back...
...Jordan and 1.5 million in Syria. Fewer than 30,000 have returned, and many of them will simply join the ranks of the 2.4 million who are classified as "internally displaced persons"--living in Iraq but unable to return to their old neighborhoods because they are now run by sectarian militias. That hasn't stopped the Iraqi government from declaring that peace is at hand. Welcoming one recent batch of returnees, Ali Dabbagh, spokesman for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said, "We are eager to have Iraqis return and live a normal, safe life...
...truth, Baghdad is nothing like normal and still some distance from safe. The number of sectarian killings is down, but few Sunnis dare to venture into Shi'ite neighborhoods, and vice versa. U.S. military commanders, whose efforts have led to the sharp reduction in violence, have been cautioning against reading too much into the statistics. "Nobody says anything about turning a corner, seeing lights at the end of tunnels, any of those phrases," General David Petraeus told journalists on Dec. 6. "There's nobody in uniform who is doing victory dances in the end zone...
...military has recruited thousands of Sunni insurgents to join the fight against jihadist groups like al-Qaeda, but the Shi'ite militias mainly responsible for last year's sectarian carnage remain largely untouched. In August, Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army, ordered it not to attack American troops. But U.S. commanders on the ground know there was no goodwill behind the decision. "It wasn't because Sadr saw Jesus--let's put it that way," says Major Christopher Coglianese, a staff officer in Baghdad. More likely, the Mahdi Army is waiting for the Americans to begin their drawdown...