"With the U.S. Congressional majority increasingly antsy to get out of
Iraq, Nouri al-Maliki's bold incursion into Tikrit — a city once pampered by
Saddam, its favorite son — underlined the prime minister's determination to save
his paralyzed government from collapse and prevent further disillusionment in
Washington. The sharp alteration of political course — a willingness to travel
to the belly of the Sunni beast and talk with former enemies — suggested a new
flexibility from the hardline religious Shiite. 'There is more uniting us than
dividing us,' he told sheiks in Tikrit, 80 miles north of Baghdad. 'We do not
want to allow al-Qaeda and the militias to exist for our coming generations.
Fighting terrorism gives us a way to unite.'"
This is a bold first step, and if it is followed by similarly bold steps by Maliki and Sunni leaders, a solution to the crisis may yet be found. I was disheartened by attacks yesterday, maybe in the aftermath of those attacks came awareness though. Violent solutions that are brought by the Americans are not going to work, but failure is the result of the violence of sectarian conflicts as well. The only people who gain from the violence is the terrorists in Iraq. Maliki sounds like he has honest concerns, and understanding about the kind of state they will create for their children. This is a brave step, the kind of step that the father of a nation takes.
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