Word: sunni
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...blunt: the U.S. military campaign to stabilize Iraq has failed. We have lost control of Anbar province, the Sunni stronghold. We are losing the battle for Baghdad. Muqtada al-Sadr's militia has taken control in several predominantly Shi'ite provinces. The government in Baghdad is near collapse. Sadr's support is the only real power base that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has left. If the political equation isn't changed soon, it is likely that Sadr will emerge as the de jure leader of Shi'ite Iraq. This will certainly lead to a full-scale civil...
...know that former Baathists have been at the heart of the Sunni insurgency. In Anbar province, for example, a key financier and coordinator of the insurgency has been Rashid Taan Kazim-one of the few cards in the deck representing Saddam's leadership circle we weren't able to capture. We are negotiating in Jordan with Baathist representatives of the Sunni insurgency; we're trying to split them off from the al-Qaeda-in-Mesopotamia terrorists, and we may succeed if a re-Baathification program is put in place. It is less well known that Sadr's Shi'ite militia...
...Cardona's return could not have been worse. Anti-American sentiment in Iraq is at an all-time high, and opinion polls show that most Iraqis-regardless of sect or ethnicity-want the U.S. forces out of their country. Hatred for the U.S. military runs deep among the minority Sunnis, whose centuries-old grip on power ended with the fall of Saddam Hussein; Sunni resentment fuels the insurgency that has raged ever since...
...from the democratic process the U.S. helped set in motion-have come to distrust the U.S. Many Shi'ites complain U.S. forces aren't doing enough to stamp out the insurgency, but are instead targeting Shi'ite militias who-in their view-are merely protecting the community from Sunni attacks...
...What Sistani-and other religious figures-will make of the Cardona debacle can only be guessed. The news broke too late to be brought up at the Friday prayers, traditionally the pulpit from which the Muslim clergy (Sunni and Shi'ite alike) comment on the important political developments of the week...