Will this be enough to get the Sunni Arabs of Anbar to end their low-level resistance to central government rule?
Iraq's Shi'ite prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, has warned he will not tolerate Sunni anti-government rallies indefinitely, but made a concession to their demands by promising to free some women prisoners.
Thousands of Sunnis have been taking to the streets of Iraq for more than a week in protest against Maliki, whom they accuse of discriminating against their sect and being under the sway of their non-Arab Shi'ite neighbor Iran.
Maliki wants the Sunni Arabs to open the road through Anbar to Jordan. And he won't abandon the laws needed to fight terrorism:
In a televised interview late on Monday, Maliki said there were foreign agendas behind the protests, which he described as "unconstitutional".
"I say to those who follow these agendas: Don't think it's difficult for the government to take measures against you or to re-open the road and put an end to this matter," Maliki said.
"We have been very patient with you, but don't expect this issue to be open-ended."
It is probably true that Maliki is using the laws against political opponents. But it is definitely true that the Sunni Arab community harbors terrorists who continue to kill Iraqis. Granted, many Sunni Arabs are simply too afraid of the terrorists rather than sympathetic to their goals, but that only highlights the need for the laws to defeat the terrorists and end that campaign of fear.
The Sunni Arab Awakening was the only hope for the Sunni Arab community to live within a democratic Iraq in safety as a minority. Are they really so foolish as to believe that they can again rule Iraq through fear and terror?
Silly me, some of them don't even believe they are a minority within Iraq. Let's hope Iraq's Sunni Arabs don't make another run at taking the Most Self Destructive People in the Middle East trophy from the Palestinians.
