With U.S. Troops Hardly Gone, Iraq's Government Is Coming Apart -- McClatchy News
BAGHDAD — Faster than anyone expected, barely a month after the last U.S. troops left, Iraq's government appears to be coming apart, prompting fears that the country is headed for another round of sectarian strife.
Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, a Shiite Muslim, is driving to consolidate control and sideline more secular politicians in a battle that increasingly appears to be a fight to the finish in which there can be no compromise.
Barham Salih, the widely admired prime minister of the autonomous Kurdish region in the north, said the infighting is "tearing the country apart." Preemption is the name of the game.
"The motto is: 'I'll have him for lunch before they have me for dinner'," he said during an interview in his office in Irbil.
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Update: Rising Strife Threatens Tenuous Iraqi Stability -- New York Times
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My Comment: Iraq's tribalism/religious sectarian differences are now coming out in the open. Controlled by Hussein, suppressed by US forces during the occupation .... Iraq's inner demons are no longer restrained and are now making their presence felt. Vice President Biden speculated as a U.S. senator in 2006 that Iraq should be split into 3 sections .... a proposal that was ridiculed by many (including me). Hmmmm .... if Iraq continues this trend of rising strife .... Vice President Biden's proposals when made as a Senator are probably going to come very very very true.