Split among the Shi'a

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the presidential palace in Baghdad on Sunday.

Split Emerges Among Shiites Over Iraqi Prime Minister Iraq's dominant Shiite political bloc fractured on Sunday when its most powerful faction publicly demanded that the incumbent Shiite prime minister resign over his inability to form a unified government. The split came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Jack Straw, the British foreign minister, paid an urgent surprise visit to Baghdad leaders to convey in the most forceful terms yet that their patience for Iraq's political paralysis is wearing out... ....But the developments suggested a new phase in Iraq's convulsions may have started by opening a possibly violent battle for the country's top job between rival Shiite factions, which both have militias backing them up. The incumbent prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, has said he will fight to keep his job, and his principal supporter is Moktada al-Sadr, a rebellious Shiite cleric whose Mahdi Army militia has resorted to violence many times to enforce his wishes".

As long as the U.S. military doesn't get dragged into the middle of any violence that breaks out between the Shi'a, then this split between these Shiite factions could actually help speed along negotiations for the new government. Wishful thinking maybe...