Word: shied
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Common ground has been so hard to find between Iraq's Shi'ites and Sunnis that the U.S. will take accord wherever it can. Hence the strange sight of the White House applauding a new law that would help members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath Party get jobs and benefits that the U.S. had stripped from them in 2003. On Jan. 12, lawmakers in Baghdad passed legislation that would give midlevel bureaucrats who worked for the former regime a shot at government jobs, and Baathist retirees with a clean record a chance to collect pensions...
...disparaging of President Bush's eight-day tour of the Middle East by America's staunchest opponents in the region was hardly unexpected. Iran's foreign minister claimed it was designed to give Israel a green light "to perpetrate new crimes" against Palestinians. Lebanon's most senior Shi'ite cleric accused Bush of "war crimes." A prominent jihadist web site called the President "this criminal, butcher and murderer of our blood...
...Palestinian gunmen kidnapped and killed Francis Meloy, a newly arrived U.S. ambassador, before he could even present his credentials. Seven years later, nearly 300 Americans were killed in suicide truck bomb strikes against the embassy and the U.S. Marine barracks near Beirut airport. The U.S. blames the militant Shi'ite Hizballah for those attacks, as well as for the kidnappings of dozens of foreigners during the 1980s - charges the Lebanese group has always denied. Still, those attacks reflected the reality that a civil war that began as an internal power struggle between Christians and Muslims had quickly became a proxy...
...Counterinsurgency is all about the people," says Crider. And residents of the predominantly Sunni neighborhood called Dora don't trust the Iraqi government, believing that the Shi'ites who run it are controlled by Iran. They trust the Americans instead. "When you realize they think we are the government then we need to take the initiative. They think if we can launch a missile from the Persian Gulf and destroy Saddam's palaces we can do anything." Like throw a switch and provide 24-hour electricity across the Iraqi capital. They look at us, says Crider, and think...
...more important step towards bridging the gap would be justice for the thousands of families who lost a loved one to a Shi'ite death squad or a Sunni suicide bombing. Talking about the horrific violence that has gripped Iraq in the past four and a half years - and the decades before that - and bringing those responsible to justice, would be a more meaningful step towards peace and justice than a paycheck or a pension. With reporting by Mark Kukis and Mazin Ezzat/Baghdad