Word: sunni
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...eight-year war and were very unlikely to cede control to their Persian neighbor without a fight. Petraeus described al-Qaeda in Iraq both as the greatest threat to stability and as the greatest loser in the struggle, its brand of Islamic extremism decisively rejected by the Sunni tribes...
...Muslim. Islamic canon is formal: a Muslim leader must do everything he can within his power to prevent fitna - civil war between Muslims. And that is exactly what bin Laden has done in Iraq, drawing us into a war and creating the circumstances for Shi'a and Sunni to kill each other. Whether or not al-Qaeda is responsible for every market truck bomb in Iraq, it will be laid at bin Laden's feet...
...siding with the Sunnis now? It is a little startling that the Sunnis, whom the U.S. tossed from power in 2003, are being showcased by Washington as its favorite new allies. Bush and Petraeus have trumpeted the fact that Sunni insurgents in western Iraq who were once allied with al-Qaeda against the U.S. have joined forces with the Americans against the terrorists. These new alliances were in part the result of luck. Al-Qaeda violently overplayed its hand and started randomly killing Sunnis who refused to ally themselves with the terrorist organization. And in some places, America...
...That's because there are unmistakable risks to the new Sunni alliance. Arming the Sunnis against al-Qaeda is fine, but if they tire of their alliance with Washington, they become just another faction armed with U.S. weapons. Shi'ites and Kurds worry that the Sunni tribesmen who are fighting alongside American troops now have little or no loyalty to the Iraqi government and would just as soon turn their guns on Iraqi forces as on al-Qaeda. In addition, strengthening a Sunni stronghold in the middle of the country goes a ways toward cementing the very partitioning of Iraq...
...Petraeus and Crocker have been the best soldier and the best diplomat to serve the U.S. in Iraq. But they see the situation from different perspectives, and their ideas about what to do next may differ as well. The Petraeus testimony seems obvious. He will emphasize the Sunni success, the tamping down of violence in Baghdad, the need for political reconciliation. He will ask for more time, acknowledging that the natural rotation schedule will leave him with fewer troops, a reduction from 20 to 15 combat brigades over the next year. Bush may try to hold his Republicans in place...