Rusted Sky

The Iraqi Sunnis never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Facing Deadline, Iraqis Consider Bypassing Sunnis on Constitution - New York Times

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 15 - Iraqi leaders remained deadlocked over major issues in the country's new constitution, raising the possibility they would fail to meet today's deadline and push the country toward a political crisis.With several questions unresolved, Shiite leaders have said that they were considering asking the National Assembly to approve the document without the agreement of the country's Sunni leaders. Such a move would probably provoke the Sunnis, whose participation in the political process is seen as crucial in the effort to marginalize the Sunni-dominated guerrilla insurgency.

It seems like the Sunnis still figure they've got leverage - that they can call the shots on how things are going to be. The Kurds and Shiites aren't going to cooperate on that, however. And the more the Sunnis try to block the process of Iraq's recovery, the less influence they're going to end up with.

So, they've gone from having the whole pie to barely a third, and they're busy throwing THAT away while trying to grab more pie.

See my sympathy meter? It's pegging to the left.

J.