Word: sunni
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Since the start of the insurgency in Iraq, the most persistent danger to U.S. troops has come from the Sunni Arab insurgents and terrorists who roam the center and west of the country. But some U.S. officials are worried about a potentially greater challenge to order in Iraq and U.S. interests there: the growing influence of Iran. With an elected Shi'ite-dominated government in place in Baghdad and the U.S. preoccupied with quelling the Sunni-led insurgency, the Iranian regime has deepened its imprint on the political and social fabric of Iraq, buying influence in the new Iraqi government...
...loose federation designed to keep their ?peshmerga? militia and the autonomy they've enjoyed in their territory for the past 14 years. They're also demanding final status talks on the city of Kirkuk, which they claim as a Kurdish city, but which was ?Arabized? under Saddam Hussein. The Sunni Arabs are pushing back against the Kurdish claims on Kirkuk and Shi'ite demands for a similar autonomous region in the south. Sunni negotiators oppose federalism because they believe it would lead to the breakup of Iraq, but they're also worried that if the Shi'ites and the Kurds...
...constantly shifting game of one-upmanship, it was the insurgents who notched a new level of deadliness last week. The worst fighting is taking place in western Iraq, where U.S. forces are trying to disrupt Sunni guerrilla operations and destroy training camps used by foreign and Iraqi terrorists. Haditha sits on the Euphrates along a corridor of lush green hills and ravines that U.S. officers say has become a vital ratline for jihadist recruits crossing from Syria and a rest-and-recoup zone for fighters from the violent Sunni triangle. Patrolling on foot and in convoy, Marines have...
...There is still a peacetime mentality," a military-intelligence officer told me. "The folks in the White House are sincere but not serious," a Republican military expert agreed. More troops are needed. So is a more active diplomatic effort to ensure Sunni--and secular Shi'ite--participation in Iraq's governing coalition (perhaps even reaching out to former Baathists involved in the insurgency). A more focused intelligence effort is needed to root out the insurgency both within Iraq and among its supporters in neighboring countries--including "allies" like Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. It is long past time...
...stumbling block is the Sunni contingent, which opposes a partition along sectarian or ethnic lines and wants a strong central government. "The Sunni Arabs are already pushing back on this. They all hate it," said a U.S. embassy official familiar with the drafting process. Jawad al-Malaki, a Shi'ite committee member and adviser to Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, calls the Sunni approach a nonstarter, warning that it could lead to a new dictatorship. Meanwhile, the U.S. is trying to convince the Sunnis that federalism is in their interest. "If you had the kind of system the Sunnis want...