Word: sunni
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There's another word for this naiveté: realism. Though he rarely admits it, President Bush has made realism the centerpiece of his second term, dispatching envoys to sit down with Sunni insurgents in Iraq, the Stalinist leadership in North Korea and the theocrats of Iran. The results have been mixed at best, and no one believes the Taliban will give up as soon as the U.S. breaks bread with them. But the alternative--endless conflict and occupation--is worse. The next President will take office in an age of dwindling resources, diminished U.S. influence and a public weary...
...Aceh that ultimately led to the cessation of hostilities after 130 years of fighting. He also helped bring an end to war and nearly 10 years of negotiations in Namibia, paving the way to that country's independence in 1990. In Iraq, the diplomat has hosted talks between feuding Sunni and Shi'ite groups, modeled on successful dialogues in South Africa and Northern Ireland...
...Syria has had an uninterrupted record of attaching itself to radical causes and countries like Iran. For starters, Syria is ruled by a besieged and insecure minority, the Alawites, a heterodox-Shi'ite ethnic minority. About 12% of Syria's population, the Alawites are looked at by extremist Sunni Muslims as heretics, fallen-away Muslims, usurpers who should be put to the sword. In the late '70s and early '80s, the Sunni extremists came close to getting their way. During a February 1982 Muslim Brotherhood insurrection in Hama, Syria's third largest city, Hafez al-Assad felt compelled to flatten...
...ghayde, 33, commands one-third of the 923 Sunni fighters that patrol Dora, a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad where al-Qaeda had banned barbershops and outlawed alcohol. He had 422 men, but about 50 fled, fearing arrest by the government. The district, which is hemmed in by high concrete T-walls, was a byword for terror before locals like the sheikh joined with U.S. forces to rout the extremists...
...weather-beaten face, his thick, black mustache and the tan bandolier draped across his chest give him the look of an Arabic Pancho Villa. Neither man knows if any of Dora's SOIs will be part of the 20% absorbed by the security forces. There are 300 more Sunni patrolmen than there are Iraqi policemen in the area, says Colonel Shwaya, and they have been instrumental in quelling the violence. But, he adds, they've finished...