Maybe. If so it is a long way off, and ironically enough it depends mostly on the good will and forbearance of the Shiites, who are the majority and must do their best to make peace and run the country fairly, unlike what the Sunnis did under Saddam. The Sunnis still pine for the days when they had their boots on the necks of the Shiites. The first step in making a unity government is convincing the Sunnis their days of total dominance through strength are gone and never coming back. Only once their will to resist the future has been broken can they begin the process of learning to trust the government.
But their will can't be broken through strength. It can only be broken through trust, and through good governance. Eliminating the militias and the death squads is a necessary first step. Sharing the oil wealth fairly is the next step. Providing opportunity for everyone regardless of their background is the last step. Can it be done? Of course it can, but is is really hard and it takes a long time. Just look at attitudes toward minorities in the US over the last fifty years. Things are hardly perfect here, and there will always be a struggle to push back against bigotry, but things are far better now than they were in the 1950's. Those prior attitudes were ingrained, in some cases the result of hundreds of years of slavery and oppression. And yet things have changed. People can learn, but someone needs to teach them. As I have been saying for awhile now, it is up to the Iraqis to make this thing work. On 3/20/07, G Money wrote: > > I think this idea of a nationally accepted government born of mutal > cooperation between Sunnis and Shiites is a pipe dream. > > I dunno RoMunn....do you see a stable, trusted government composed of > Shiites and Sunnis as a real possibility? Because right now, I don't :/ > > --------------- Robert Munn www.funkymojo.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Deploy Web Applications Quickly across the enterprise with ColdFusion MX7 & Flex 2 Free Trial http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=RVJU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:230896 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5
