Iraqis stand up
IRAQ'S NEW election law will not, by itself, stop sectarian violence. Nor will the law, which governs provincial elections early next year, deliver electricity, clean water, and jobs to bomb-blasted urban areas and forlorn villages. But in adopting the law by a unanimous vote last week, members of the Iraqi Parliament made it clear that they recognize the benefits of waging their power struggles by purely political means.
Recent changes in the power balance among factions made the agreement on the election law possible. Al Qaeda in Iraq has been pretty well smashed by the Awakening Councils - 100,000 armed men paid by the American military and deployed by Sunni Arab tribal leaders. On the other side of the key sectarian divide in Iraq, the government of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki used the Iraqi army to take on the militia of Moqtada al-Sadr, reducing that firebrand cleric's sway over Basra in the south and large areas of Baghdad.
In this new situation, members of Parliament could see advantages to making the compromises an election law required. With fear of a Sadrist takeover reduced, Maliki and his political allies in the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq had a chance to enhance their representation in Parliament, thanks to their new aura as nationalist enforcers of security.
Sunni legislators watched a Shi'ite government go to war against a Shi'ite militia that had murdered untold numbers of Sunni Arabs. Consequently, Sunnis decided they could use the ballot box to pursue their fair share of power - and of the wealth awaiting extraction from Iraq's vast oil fields.
The lure of those oil riches is beginning to turn Iraqi politicians toward cooperation and a common national identity. This may be true even for the disputed city of Kirkuk, which Kurds want to bring under the Kurdish Autonomous Government in the north, against the wishes of Turkmen and Arabs.
Parliament opted for a committee of the major ethnic groups to determine the status of Kirkuk. The city's residents will not vote until that determination is made. But with improved security bringing the day closer when Iraqis may cash in on their enormous oil reserves, a resolution of the conflict over Kirkuk may become easier.
Since most of the unexploited oil fields are in the south of Iraq, the Kurds could fare better in the long run if they aim for a portion of the proceeds proportional to their share of Iraq's population, instead of seeking control over the mostly depleted fields in the Kurdish region.
A new Iraq is coming into being, and it will not need or want a foreign army of occupation on its soil. 