Stratfor discusses how the size of the attacks shows that the jihadis still have an infrastructure to plan and execute such a big attack as they recently carried out in Baghdad. And that the jihadis live on because they remain a wild card the Sunni Arabs can play to get a better deal from the Shia majority.
While these attacks are deadly and cause personal tragedies, they do not approach the potential of breaking up Iraq in violence the way the Kurdish-Arab divide does:
An Iraqi Kurdish lawmaker says his fellow Kurdish legislators are boycotting a parliament session on a crucial election law needed for the upcoming January balloting.
The election law has been held up over a key issue — whether to use voter lists favoring Kurds or those favoring Arabs in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk. Both groups seek to control Kirkuk.
The boycott is complicating the country's political deadlock.
The Iraqis need to set the ground rules for their fledgling democracy that removes the option of using violence to advance political objectives.
