We told them this would happen:

"We made a big mistake when we didn't vote," said Sheik Hathal Younis Yahiya, 49, a (Sunni-Muslim) representative from northern Nineveh. "Our votes were very important."

He said threats from insurgents - not sectarian differences - kept most Sunnis from voting.

Gathering in a central Baghdad hotel, about 70 tribal leaders from the provinces of Baghdad, Kirkuk, Salaheddin, Diyala, Anbar and Nineveh, tried to devise a strategy for participation in a future government. There was an air of desperation in some quarters of the smoke-filled conference room.

"When we said that we are not going to take part, that didn't mean that we are not going to take part in the political process. We have to take part in the political process and draft the new constitution," said Adnan al-Duleimi, the head of Sunni Endowments in Baghdad.

These are not the words of important people that want a civil war.

Continue Reading