Armitage We Need To Bring Iraqi Sunnis

Armitage: We need to bring the Iraqi Sunnis into the Political Process

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in Cairo said that the US wishes to bring the Iraqi Sunnis back from being marginalized and to engage them in a political process. He said the US wants to turn power over to an Iraqi government as soon as possible, but did not want to rush the process, risking the creation of an artificial solution and a failed state unable actually to shoulder the burdens laid on it. (Reuters, az-Zaman).

I certainly hope this isn’t a sign that momentum is building for a restoration of the Hashimite monarchy in Iraq. The Shiites would immediately recognize that as a way of marginalizing them. (That is what it was in the 1920s during the British mandate, and after). Probably a quarter to a third of Iraqi Shiites are deeply imbued with Khomeinist ideas, and Khomeinism says Shiism is anti-monarchical. There would be enormous trouble over a restored Sunni monarchy eventually. Since the Shiites are 65% of the population, the US should be careful not to infuriate them in a vain attempt to make people in Fallujah like the US. It is unlikely to happen, and you’d end up being hated by both.