Word: shying
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...series of bloody attacks on Shi'ite pilgrims traveling through central Iraq has raised the question of whether the Mahdi Army, a powerful Shi'ite militia loyal to Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, should be officially allowed to bear arms as a community security force. The Mahdi Army had protected previous pilgrimages, but has also been linked to executions and ethnic cleansing of Sunnis; it recently stood down its men, under pressure from the government of Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, to avoid clashes with U.S. and Iraqi military forces securing Baghdad...
...press conference last week, Gen. David Petraeus, the new U.S. commander in Iraq, was asked if the Mahdi Army might have a legitimate role in protecting Shi'ite gatherings. Petraeus seemed to suggest that such a solution might eventually be acceptable to the U.S. "You know, many of... the coalition countries have a variety of auxiliary police or other functions," Petraeus said guardedly. "The challenge, of course, is that some of these organizations have participated in true excesses, and they have been responsible, some of them, some the extremist elements of them - and I think that the challenge has been...
...their own against the Sunnis, the Coalition, or the government," Cordesman told TIME. "In the short run, the key priority for military operations is to build security as soon as possible, avoid unnecessary confrontations with the Mahdi Army and militias [and] focus on active threats, whether Sunni or Shi'ites. This is a search for least bad options that have many conflicting priorities, and the best possible solution is going to be messy, involve contradictory priorities, and force the U.S. to constantly adapt to the realities of Iraq politics...
...Petraeus, on the other hand, seemed to be addressing Iraqis and Arabs. Many of Iraq's top leaders have repeatedly said that they view the militias as being a kind of neighborhood watch - with some bad apples who do terrible things. The evidence that some Shi'ite fighters engage in systematic kidnapping, torture and execution of Sunnis suggests that's wishful thinking, but that's what they claim. Petraeus knows this and has to calibrate what he says accordingly...
...sectarian wars between Sunnis and Shi'ites would be comparable to a civil war in the U.S. between Southern Baptists and Roman Catholics. If Iraqis cannot tolerate slight differences in practice of the same religion, how can they embrace democracy? One of the foundations of our democracy is the acceptance of different ideologies, including religion. It's time for Sunnis and Shi'ites to get over their mutual 1,300-year-old grudge. If Americans can accept a multitude of religious creeds among their compatriots, then surely Iraqis can accept differences in the same religion...