Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Untangling Iraq


The Great Circle of Enmity - Fouad Ajami

The State of Israel is a year away from its 60th anniversary, and still the Arab imagination denies Israel's legitimacy.

Iraq, a state that gives pride of place to the Shiites (and the Kurds) is still an oddity in the Arab landscape. For well over a millennium, the Shiite Arabs have not governed; they have been the stepchildren of the Arab world.

Sunni Arab[s] insist that their animus toward this new Iraq derives from their opposition to the American presence. This is plain hypocrisy, for vast stretches of the Arab world are within the orbit of American power. [T]he American presence dates back decades.
(U.S. News)

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