The Sunni Option

Tom Friedman says that the US should support a neo-Baathist Sunni government in the upcoming Iraqi elections. He claims it is the only way to ensure the Sunnis participate in the election, and the only way to avoid a civil war. Matthew Yglesias says it's a good column. I'm not so sure.

After all, as Iraq'd has pointed out, the Shi'ites best overture possibility toward the Sunnis is offering an end to the US occupation. Since this is bad presumably because both the Sunnis and Shi'ites view the US as puppeteers, would it really be in the US's interest to CONFIRM that hypothesis by actively intervening in favor of a chosen group?

I'd be very surprised if the Shi'ites took that lying down, especially since they would undoubtedly view it as a) hypocrisy of the highest order from all of our high minded talk of Democracy and b) a theft of their years overdue ascension to political control. But perhaps this a lose-lose choice forced upon us by the Sunni Persecution Strategy. Lose-lose choices...ain't that a refrain we seem to be hearing alot from Iraq.