The oil law advances:
The prime minister announced Tuesday that his Cabinet had unanimously approved the oil draft and that the parliament would begin discussing it the following day. He called the bill "the most important law in Iraq."
And provincial elections that the Sunni Arabs won't be foolish enough to sit out will be held:
The last provincial elections were held on Jan. 30, 2005, and were largely boycotted by the Sunni minority, resulting in a Shiite sweep even in areas of the country with substantial Sunni populations.
"We are determined to hold provincial elections this year and we should not surrender to challenges and it is not important for us who wins because the winner are Iraqis," al-Maliki said while receiving members of the Independent Electoral Commission.
Representation in a free Iraq and money should make the Sunni Arabs feel secure enough to end their foolish resistance once and for all. Well, other than the several thousand die-hard jihadis and high-ranking Baathists with blood on their hands dating back to the Saddam era. But they will have lost the support of the Sunni Arabs and will be hunted down and killed.
This fight against a small but ruthless common enemy may actually cement an Iraqi identity among Kurds, Shias, and Sunni Arabs.
Then the threat from Iran--which has been the biggest threat to us in Iraq for more than two years despite the high profile suicide bombings by jihadis--must be fully confronted by Iraq's Shias, Kurds, and Sunni Arabs.
So hold off on your brightly colored markers in your eagerness to split apart Iraq.
