By the way, is it really possible to imagine that in the near future Iraq will settle down to a stable state of contented pluralism -- given the fact that the committee working on the new constitution has 55 members and only 2 are Sunni Arabs?

I understand Shiite and Kurdish resentment, obviously (at the nature of the Sunni regime in the Saddam years, at the insurgency, at the election boycott) -- but none of this is supposed to matter, right? It's not supposed to matter because, as we're so often told, people just love democracy and love freedom and gravitate toward democracy and freedom and pluralism and peaceful coexistence like a dog to another dog's butt. Tribalism and lingering resentments aren't supposed to matter once everyone steps into the big happy sunshine of freedom.

Well, in reality, Condi Rice, as the linked story notes, had to point out to the Iraqis that woefully underrepresenting the Sunnis might not be a wise long-term strategy. That's how bad things are in Iraq, I guess: A member of the Bush inner circle is acting as the voice of moderation.