Seems like the Sunnis don't like the Shi'ites.
Doh.
When Petraeus held the Iraq command, he put over 100,000 Sunni gunmen on the American payroll, offering them money and weapons to lie low for the interim. That arrangement lasted until the government of Nuri al-Maliki invited the Iranian-backed party of Shi’ite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to join his government – the same Muqtada whose Mahdi Army battled American forces for control of Sadr City in 2004. News reports on October 15 cited unnamed Washington sources saying that the Obama administration would end its support for Maliki if he allied with Muqtada, although it is not clear what that might entail.
No matter what Billy Kristol says, remember the above facts. True, Obama has done nothing, zero, zip, nada, to blunt the Iranian moves into Iraq AND Lebanon.
But GWBush set the stage by "building democracy."
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This is one of those stories, like the 'homeless' stories here in America, that comes up now and then. "Sunni insurgent allies about to turn back to al Qaeda" was supposed to be true in 2007 (when we were only starting to have success with the Awakening), 2008 (when we were looking at provincial elections coming up), 2009 (when they were trying to pressure State to improve the jobs program that we were negotiating for them in the spring), and now in 2010 (as part of the negotiations around the formation of the new government).
That's not to say that there's not an issue here; there is. It is to say that the issue has come up several times before without producing a rebirth of insurgency, and is often used as a negotiation tactic. Expect to read this same article next year, too.
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