During the Iraq War, I repeatedly asked whether the Iraqi Sunni Arabs were determined to wrestle the crown of most self-destructive and stupid people from the Palestinians. Repeated efforts to get Iraq's Sunni Arabs to accept a more appropriate post-Saddam role within a democratic Iraq were rejected. In the end, the efforts to flip the Sunni Arabs worked, aided by the depravity and violence of their so-called al Qaeda allies that drove the Sunni Arabs into the arms of America.
Too many Sunni Arabs still support the jihadis who kill Shias, however. The Iraqi government, while not squeaky clean in the struggle, understandably want to stamp out the Sunni Arab support for the terrorism that still plagues Iraq. Sadly, Sunni Arabs spend more time demonstrating against the Shia government rather than crushing the jihadis who prompt Shia anger against Sunni Arabs.
And many of the Sunni Arabs betray their beliefs that they should really be in charge.
So al Qaeda is trying to engineer their own Anbar Counter-awakening to exploit Sunni Arab restlessness:
Al Qaeda's local affiliate Islamic State of Iraq said "peace and patience" were useless for dealing with the Shi'ite-led government they see as oppressors of Iraq's Sunni minority.
"You have two options, not three: either kneel before the apostates, though that will be impossible, or to take up arms," Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, the group's spokesman said in an audio statement posted on a jihadist website.
Thousands of Sunni Muslims have rallied mostly in the western province of Anbar since December over frustrations they have been sidelined since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
The Sunni Arabs of Iraq are fools to blow their chance to be part of a non-despotic Iraq. But you can't rule that out.
