Free Republic

Like many of Baghdad's fiery Sunni clerics, Sheikh Omar Ibrahim al Duleimi was never afraid to stir things up at Friday prayers. When he urged his congregation to rise up and fight the American occupation, United States troops would routinely haul him in for questioning. When he urged his congregation to register to vote in elections, the threat came from his compatriots - insurgents, who sent him warning messages that he ignored. The sheikh has now paid the ultimate price for his defiance. Two hours before he was due to be interviewed by The Sunday Telegraph, armed men stormed his...

The first democratically elected Iraqi government was not even fully born when already its obituaries were being written. The front page of the New York Times last week reported of a "striking display of divisions," of "polarizing negotiations" and the "serious embarrassment" that the difficulties in finding suitable Sunni Arab cabinet ministers was causing. The implication of such reports is that without "credible" Sunnis in the cabinet, the government's legitimacy will be impaired, its efforts to defeat the current terrorist onslaught will be hobbled, or both. Before we get too breathless, some perspective is in order. First, Sunni Arabs now...