Violence in Iraq has considerably receded over the past few months yet tensions remain high between respective sectarian clans that the United States of America is trying to reconcile in a way that could prove effective in the short term but carry the seeds of a wider conflict if the concerns are not addressed in due course of time.
According to Patrick Cockburn, the Iraqi city of Fallujah in the notorious Anbar province is a prime example of how the country is critically divided ethnically. Fallujah, once a stronghold of Sunni insurgency, is much changed from those bloody days around six months ago. The Awakening Movement, a typical American brainchild to drive away Al Qaeda fighters is bearing fruit and the town is far safer security wise. But the bottomline is, things are not that rosy if we get deep into the matter. Fallujah is a war ravaged town and the ordinary population still do not have access to the basic needs such as clean water, proper medical care, etc. Although there is immense agitation within the local population against the Shia-led government and the American forces stationed there, the real threat has come from within the Awakening Movement. Former Sunni insurgents who are now allied with the US to flush out Al Qaeda want immediate attention to their grievances. The tribal leaders want long term permanent jobs in the government otherwise they have promised renewed war in the next few months. That sounds ominous. It has to be admitted that without these Sunni tribal leaders in Anbar, the US and the Iraqi government could not have ended the deadly insurgency in what was known as “the triangle of death.”
But the Nouri Al Maliki Shia-led government has proved absolutely ineffective in protecting the demands of the minority Sunnis and that is where the Shia-Sunni divide is broadening ever so gradually. The Iraqi government fears that with such handsome American financial incentives, the Awakening Movement is starting to represent itself as a strong Sunni political outfit which boasts of former officers of the Saddam Hussein regime that could cause problems for the Shia and Kurdish-led administration. If the Iraqi government and the US do not find ways to mend the situation, the protectors of Fallujah could again be drawn into the Al Qaeda terror web and then no one would be able to prevent Iraq from disintegrating further.
Image Credit: Slate Magazine
