Rival Shiite Leaders Come Together; it’s a start…

I ran across this story the other day and it gave me hope for two reasons. That will become clear after we understand what’s happened.

So to recap what we should all know, but far too few actually do, the basics of the Iraq conflict

Although there are 3 rival factions in Iraq, just two are engaged in the civil war, the Shiite and the Sunni. This story isn’t about the Shiite and Sunni conflict. This story is about conflict within the Shiite community, coming together.

Muqtada al-Sadr, the populist Shiite cleric, and Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the head of the Supreme Islamic Council of Iraq,

have signed a cooperative agreement. Although the bands had previously clashed violently, their leaders agreed to a three part plan.

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, Bush called him "AAAH"

Stopping the fighting between Iraqis, urging print and electronic media to engender a spirit of friendship and forgiveness, and establishing commissions in each of Iraq's 18 provinces to oversee the peace initiative.

But forget the plan for the second. Think about this, two very large Shiite organizations in the same country couldn’t or wouldn’t unite even during a factional war. Not only is Islam not united, the factions within Islam are not united. We should remember that when conceptualizing the terrorist threat. Its neither a military nor a state-bound problem, and it should be dealt with as such.