The Beginning Of The End?

The SOFA in Iraq has passed. Last minute haggling from nervous Sunnis managed to come to some resolution, although the details of that negotiation are not yet clear. Perhaps of concern: the voting did not convey a sense of unanimity, as Sistani wanted, with only 198 deputies showing up out of 275, meaning a 149 out of 275 margin. The good news is that the US gets to leave the plave by 2011, as the Iraqis insist. The key test will be the stability of the place, if any, as US troops withdraw. We may have a fragile national consensus to get rid of the occupiers, but we do not have a serious reason to believe that the deepest issues between Kurds, Sunni and Shia have been resolved.