How to Avoid a Return to Iraq

Although the increased sectarian violence in a post-U.S. Iraq has gotten most of the publicity from the international media, there are other telling signs that a bloody civil war there may be in the offing. Much sentiment exists in Sunni majority areas—distrustful of the increasingly autocratic and uncompromising Shi’ite-run regime of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki—to form regional governments with more autonomy from the central government. In fact, a majority of the provincial council of the Sunni-dominated Diyala province requested that the central government hold a referendum on whether the province should form a semi-autonomous region.