Political reconciliation in Iraq has a way of perpetually receding from the legal and political frameworks that are built for it.

Political reconciliation in Iraq has a way of perpetually receding from the legal and political frameworks that are built for it. The pattern was set more than two years ago, when Iraqi leaders announced agreement on a new constitution but buried in its text fundamental differences over federalism, the distribution of oil revenue, the role of Islam in the state and other matters. Since then, often under pressure from the Bush administration, breakthroughs on oil sharing or regional powers have been proclaimed; on close inspection, they reveal the same unresolved differences among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

Political reconciliation in Iraq has a way of perpetually receding from the legal and political frameworks that are built for it. The pattern was set more than two years ago, when Iraqi leaders announced agreement on a new constitution but buried in its text fundamental differences over federalism, the distribution of oil revenue, the role of Islam in the state and other matters. Since then, often under pressure from the Bush administration, breakthroughs on oil sharing or regional powers have been proclaimed; on close inspection, they reveal the same unresolved differences among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.