Raed Jarrar, Iraq consultant for the American Friends Service Committee, discusses the Iraqi political landscape in the wake of recent elections, the reemergence of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi in a popular non-sectarian nationalist coalition, how the US occupation has distorted Iraqi politics and prevented the formation of functional government, unfounded fears that a US withdrawal will incite a civil war and why Iraq’s ‘sectarian’ strife is better understood as a political struggle between nationalists and separatists than a religious fight between Sunni and Shia.
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