The Sunnis are Fighting For Inclusion

While most of the Shiite are quite happy to peacefully await the creation of a new government, and the US departure.

Since sweeping to power 8 1/2 months ago in the first elections since Hussein's fall, Iraq's long-persecuted Shiite majority has proved all but unstoppable in its quest to remake the country its way. Few places have profited from the ascendancy as much as Najaf, a city of 500,000 awash in reconstruction projects and only intermittently plagued by insurgent attacks. When the country votes again Saturday, this time on whether to approve a draft constitution mostly written by Shiite leaders, Najafis are expected to endorse it overwhelmingly.

They appear to have learned some of the lessons of the past and are waiting for their ascendancy to be delivered. This doesn't mean that the Shiites will stand together forever.

Once the Sunni threat is removed, the divisions that exist in the Shiite block will manifest themselves.

Hakim and the Supreme Council continue to push for a separate Shiite-majority state, arguing that Iraq's national leadership has a long history of mistreating Shiites. "Shiites suffered and were insulted by the central government for many years, and this is a form of protection," said Anwar Shimirti, a top Supreme Council official in Najaf.

Sadr's more populist following, drawn mostly from Shiite slums in Iraq's largest cities, contends that such a proposal undermines national unity. Sahib Amiri, who heads a branch of Sadr's organization, said that even though his movement could benefit from the formation of a federal state, it rejected the notion on principle.

Some factions want an independent state, some want a religious state, some want close ties to Iraq, some want a whole Iraq. Once the concern about the sunni population passes, expect the various divisions in the shiite block to start to push themselves forward.

And most of these groups also have their own private armies.

At least by the time Iraq gets to this point, if it ever does, we should be out of Iraq.

UPDATE

Robert Fisk, Middle East correspondent for The Independent also gives his current impression of Iraq;

Most of Iraq is in a state of anarchy, with insurgents controlling parts of Baghdad just half a mile from the so-called Green Zone,