A New Coalition?

My speculation below about the reason for the Maliki/al-Hakim meetings gets a confirmation and an amplification at Missing Links, a valuable site that has items from the Arabic language press.

This comes at a time when Sunni Arabs of Iraq, Shiite Arabs of Iraq, and non-Arabs of Iraq are trying to form a coalition within the elected Iraqi parliament to force an end to the American occupation, summarized here and here, among other places. But what you hear in America is just the endless drumbeat of sectarian polarization.

If Sadr can come to an agreement with the Sunnis and others to pass a parliamentary resolution calling for US withdrawal, the Cheney strategy will have taken a body blow. It wouldn't surprise me if that was the main theme of Cheney's visit to Saudi Arabia, either.