There are none so blind as those who will not see. Iraq's Premier Nouri Al-Maliki seems to be sightless as he drives his country toward disintegration by willfully provoking its Sunni community. The resulting incipient instability only serves the cause of his Iranian backers, who do not wish to see a united and prosperous Iraq rise from the ashes of its destruction by Washington. The gathering anger among Sunnis coalesced with the charging of Vice-President Tariq Al-Hashemi with terrorism offenses, his flight to Turkey and later conviction in his absence and triple death sentences. This week police raided offices of the finance minister Rafia Al-Issawi and arrested ten of his bodyguards. Issawi's hometown, Ramadi, the capital of the Al-Anbar Governorate, was the scene of immediate protests at this latest attack on another senior Sunni member of Maliki's National Unity government. Unfortunately for Iraq, it seems increasingly clear that the premier is running an administration that is neither national, nor united. Moreover, given the corruption and maladministration together with the continuing lack of security evidenced by repeated attacks from resurgent Al-Qaeda terrorists, Maliki is not doing a very good job of government either. It seems to many Sunnis that the Shia part of the administration is doing everything it can think of to provoke them. A further example has been the arrest of the wives and family members of Sunnis, who the police say are wanted on criminal charges. This is fundamentally unjust by any legal standards. It also seems designed to outrage Sunnis, not least because there is no evidence that similar arrests are being made among any Shias. As a result of Maliki's dangerous policies, Al-Anbar Governorate is effectively now in revolt. The international highway between Syria and Jordan has been blocked in a protest that has snowballed in recent days. The economic impact of this obstruction is likely to be felt relatively quickly. So far the Sunni protest has been largely peaceful, although there is an implicit threat to drivers who seek to push their way through. The real concern has to be how Maliki will respond. The obvious way for police and army to reach the blockade in the west of the country is through Ramadi and Fallujah, both towns with significant Sunni populations. Thus any attempt to break up the protest with force is likely to be extremely risky. Maliki's problem has been exacerbated by the unexpected move of another leading Shia politician. The cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr, long seen as a maverick, has given a guarded endorsement of the Sunni action. Sunni leaders will be trying to figure out what Sadr is up to. His opposition to Maliki within the coalition government is well known — indeed at one point he took his political group out of the administration. Is he merely appearing to side with the country's Sunnis as a way of frustrating his fellow Shia rival? Or is this a real act of statesmanship on his part? It would be good to believe that Sadr sees what Maliki refuses to — that there is no future for Iraq without its Sunnis, nor indeed, without its Kurds. The chances are, however, that Sadr is either working to a rival Iranian agenda to those in Tehran backing Maliki, or that he sees a fine opportunity to outmaneuver his rival for leadership of Iraq's Shia community.
