Summary

The efforts by the American side to generate a new government were complicated, Part 14 demonstrates, by the unwillingness of Sunnis to take part. Sunnis participating in politics or local government had been targeted, either killed or having family members kidnapped and only released when they agreed to stop taking part. Long-suffering diplomat Robert Ford met with Tariq al-Hashimi, a leader in Iraq’s largest Sunni party. Asked why he and his party were not taking part in the upcoming elections of January 2005, Hashimi told Ford that he and other Sunnis were not willing “to get themselves killed” (177).

It was not just the lack of security from Zarqawi’s band, Hashimi told him, but Shiite gangs and police had been targeting Sunnis and driving them from their homes. Raids on Sunni homes were often aimed at the wrong targets and ended up...