Rep. John Spratt (D-S.C.) wasn’t buying Amb. Crocker’s portrait of sotto voce reconciliation efforts. Crocker, however, decided to double down, saying that the “Sunnis are now linking to the federal government by being part of the police force.”
Unfortunately, the Shiite government believes, and not without reason, that the Sunni infusion into the local police and Iraqi Army will ultimately lead to a coup. Witness one Sunni recently telling The New York Times that “If we get into the Iraqi police we can move to Mahmudiya and Yusufiya and south Baghdad to free them and kill all the militias.â
To Crocker, those provincial moves against al-Qaeda “could be the seeds of reconciliation.”
At several points during his testimony, Crocker has stated that “fundamental questions” over what sort of country Iraq will be is hindering reconciliation, while simultaneously hinting that such reconciliation is already occurring in miniature. Both statements can’t be true at once.
