Those Wacky Iraqis

The CS Monitor is reporting that the Sunnis are putting together an anti-American coalition to give them some additional clout in Iraq's new parliament.

This vigorous new effort to participate is a complete reversal from the Sunni position last year that voters should boycott polls to select the transitional national assembly. But if the coalition has decided to join in a process it once rejected, it is also beginning to articulate a Sunni political agenda that is Islamist, vehemently anti-American, opposed to foreign troops, and discreetly pro-insurgency.

Many of the old Sunni leaders are gone, entangled in the insurgency, or in jail. These new leaders are hoping that they can begin to reverse a political posture that was hobbled in part by the January boycott.

"We will insist on participating in the next election by the help of almighty God," says Adnan Dulaimi, head of a group called Ahl Iraq, who has a reputation for religious devotion and toughness that elicits respect in some and fear in others.

The political platform of this evolving Sunni coalition, named the Iraqi Accord, still lacks focus beyond ensuring Sunnis aren't persecuted by a Shiite government. Nonetheless, the groups in the coalition so far are drawing up a list of candidates and have begun calling for Sunnis to vote in December elections.

Remember the name 'Iraqi Accord.' Whilst this initial step - a fight with words, rather than arms - is vastly preferred, it is almost certainly not the last we'll hear from the war torn country.

I urge my dear readers to take a moment and read the full article. It provides much more color than I have provided here; man on the street interviews and such.

Shorter Sunni issues: "We got dissed."