Backtalk: What lies beneath

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What lies beneath
By Gian P. Gentile

Reports from Iraq are showing that the war-torn country might finally be on the road to some mix of local and national reconciliation. The recent reduction in violence suggests this might be the case and Iraq’s bleeding may have been stopped.

Yet deals cut with our former Sunni-insurgent enemies to stop fighting us and become our allies against al-Qaida, along with the hope of compromise between the different factions in Iraq and the Iraqi government, may be taking our eyes off the fundamental issue that has yet to be resolved: Who will hold absolute power in Iraq, Shiites or Sunnis?

One observer in Iraq noted that the Shiites and Sunnis still have not recognized the need to share power and acknowledge that one group cannot dominate over the other. How this fundamental conflict is resolved, through compromise or civil war, is still anything but clear.

A long-standing conflict in America could not be resolved despite a series of compromises; it took the American Civil War to do that. In the 19th century, at least three major compromises sought to resolve the foremost issue of the day — slavery — and specifically what to do about it in the western territories. Many Americans thought that each compromise over slavery had allowed them to turn the corner and remove slavery as a hot-button political issue.

Congress in 1820 established a line along the southern edge of Missouri to mark where slavery could go in the newly acquired land from the Louisiana Purchase. When the aging Thomas Jefferson heard of the Missouri Compromise, he referred to it ominously as a “fire bell in the night.” He understood it would do nothing but delay the final reckoning of the issue of slavery. A compromise that placed a line on a map separating the slave-holding South from the free North would only inflame, not soothe, the raw passions and hatred building in America over slavery.


Rest of article at: http://www.armytimes.com/community/opinion/army_backtalk_iraq_030308/