Word: shying
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...March 14 block and the pro-Syrian opposition led by the powerful militant Shi'ite Hizballah have been at loggerheads for months over the identity of the next President. In Lebanon's sectarian power-sharing system, the presidency is reserved for Maronite Catholics. Several contenders have announced their candidacy, although no clear consensus has yet emerged that would satisfy both factions. The March 14 block is pushing to elect one of their own, but the opposition has threatened to form a second rival government if an acceptable candidate is not found...
...stable power-sharing arrangement. That, quite simply, has not happened, nor is there any sign that it's likely to. The reason the politicians have failed to agree is not the violence on the streets; the violence itself is in most instances a symptom of the power struggles between Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish factions, as well as, in some cases, the internecine struggles for political dominance within those communities. The power struggle among Iraqis is nowhere near over...
...groups with which the U.S. is cooperating in Anbar are not only outside of the Iraqi government; they are actively opposed to it, seeing it as a Shi'ite entity beholden to Iran. Such cooperation helps deal with the problem of al-Qaeda in Iraq - a brutal presence, to be sure, but still a minority element in the overall Sunni insurgency - but it doesn't necessarily reinforce national reconciliation...
...leave, and some of the key Iraqi players are using that as an opportunity to best position themselves for the power struggles ahead. Moqtada Sadr is a prime example: His tactical shifts between standing down his forces and alternately confronting the Americans, the Sunnis and his Shi'ite rivals suggest a strategy of boosting his position while husbanding his political and military resources for a post-U.S. power struggle...
...tribe's expertise) for the Administration's hopes for a turnaround in Iraq. If there were only a Sattar or two for every province, the thinking went, then the insurgency might finally fade enough to allow the government in Baghdad to function properly. Never mind that the Shi'ite sectarian partisans of the Iraqi government in Baghdad led by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki seemed altogether unwilling to include such Sunni local leaders in the political process. Grassroots success would reshape the political landscape and allow things to work out,or so the Americans hoped. And so U.S. military...