Rancor on the Tigris

As U.S. troops leave Iraq, Sunnis and Shiites in government begin squabbling.

They probably expected something different in Washington. The last U.S. soldier has only just left Iraq, and the Iraqi government appears to be on the verge of collapse. The United States pumped approximately $1 trillion into the country, developed its institutions, modernized its armed forces with the latest weaponry and built the world’s largest embassy in Baghdad.

However, the Baghdad government — or, more properly, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government — has been purging itself of political opponents for the last few weeks. Maliki is now distancing himself from his own coalition partner, Tarek al-Hashemi of the Iraqiya Party.

Hashemi, a moderate Sunni who negotiated between Sunnis and Shiites during the civil war, is accused of orchestrating several contract killings.

The political leadership is paralyzed. Al-Maliki has become intolerable to political elites, including his own allies, by steadily expanding his sphere of influence. Sunnis now hope President Massoud Barzani will mediate. Barzani is Kurdish; they hope he can unite both sides.

Nonetheless, the country is on the brink of breaking up. The Kurds already have their own little kingdom in the north and want nothing to do with Baghdad. After the Americans depart, the Shiites will turn toward Iran and the Sunnis toward their Arab neighbors.