Four months ago, with little fanfare, the State Department sent a full-time senior diplomat, Alan Misenheimer, to live in Iraq#8217;s disputed oil-rich city Kirkuk. For the Obama administration, which had been hoping to back out of its day-to-day involvement in Iraq#8217;s fractious politics, it was a smart, if belated, call.
It was a recognition that the bitter discord between Iraq#8217;s Kurdish regional government and the Shiite-Arab- dominated central government #8212; over land, oil and the power of the central government #8212; is the most dangerous fault line in Iraq today. It was also an acknowledgment that if these conflicts are to be settled, or at least kept from igniting a new civil war, there must be deft and sustained American involvement.
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