Amid Progress in Iraq, Sides Have Scores to Settle

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BAGHDAD — The dust storms that have blanketed Baghdad, making it hard to see for much of the summer, seem a metaphor for the times.

The security situation is indisputably good. Violence is down. Parliament passed both a law to hold a census for the first time in more than three decades and a provincial election law that would allow the balloting to be held in all but one province by the end of January. This is clear progress.

But look harder at this moment — even at the passage of the election law — and it is possible to make out paths leading either to failure or to success.

From the American standpoint, elections are a good thing, a chance to sort out the division of power peacefully. Elections would allow a number of groups now excluded from the political mix to have a place at the table. Chief among them are representatives of tribal Sunnis and impoverished Shiites.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html?th&emc=th