UM, MAYBE THEY DON'T WANT POLITICAL RECONCILIATION

(h/t Kevin Drum)

With all the talk about how long we should stay in Iraq, we rarely hear about what the Iraqis think. I don't mean that what the Iraqis think isn't reported in the press, it just seems to disappear from our national discussions. This extends to the idea that there should be political reconciliation in Iraq. Maybe the dominate party really doesn't want it.

World Politics Review: An Iraq View from Three Analysts Recently Returned
An Iraq View from Three Analysts Recently Returned
Media: World Politics Review
Author: Hampton Stephens
Date: August 15, 2008

Kahl, who is one of Barack Obama's Iraq advisers, put the blame for the slow pace of political reconciliation on Prime Minster Nouri al-Maliki, as well as on American strategy, which he believes is not properly aimed at using U.S. leverage to push Iraq's leaders toward political accommodation.

For example, Maliki has been "slow-rolling" the integration of the Sunni Sons of Iraq into the Iraqi army and police, according to Kahl. Kahl offered some startling statistics about the lack of progress on this front: Of the more than 100,000 Sunni militiamen that were much of the reason for American success over the last year in combating Al-Qaeda in Iraq, 16,000 are "in the pipeline" for integration into the Iraqi Army and police. Of these 16,000, the Iraqi government has only approved 600.

Why? According to Kahl, Maliki, overconfident in the capabilities of the Shiite-dominated Iraqi army, believes he would be would be victorious in an inter-sectarian civil war, if it comes to that, and thus has no real interest in integrating these Sunnis into the Iraqi army and police forces.

"Maliki has no interest in integrating these guys -- none," Kahl said. "He thinks they're thugs; he thinks they're hooligans. . . . In fact, there's some evidence that he's trying to pick fights with them, hoping that they will start a fight that he can then turn around and finish them."