ANALYSIS-Iraqi politics complicated beyond sectarian lines

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14528692.htm

<snip>Sadr, a relative of the young Moqtada al-Sadr, was seen as a nationalist and an advocate of clerical education.

Shi'ite and Sunni Islamist groups vary in opinion when it comes to the depth of Islam's role in the state and in their degree of hostility towards the West.

For example, Moqtada al-Sadr's militias joined Sunni insurgents in the past to fight U.S troops whilst the largest Sunni party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, sided with Shi'ite parties in accepting the U.S-backed political process from the beginning.

The Islamic Party urged its Sunni followers to back a referendum on a constitution that most Sunnis rejected but was endorsed by Shi'ites and Kurds.

[PATRICK]

1. The US policy

under Bush was always to play off and foster these divisions. This Cheney style thinking has always proved utterly disastrous and mismanaged but you can see the intentions writ large and the a priori disregard for consequences. To pull off this divide and conquer strategy is is easy, but after divide and conquer comes what? Sustainability? The conqueror must keep conquering, the market keep rising, the climate kept stable, the populace kept fooled and cowed and divided. And reality must be at the pagan god-like whim of the WH.

[NNN0LHI]

2. They try and do the same thing with us too

It isn't going to work here either.

Don