The Sahwa Wild Card

clipped from www.realclearpolitics.com But Ali Hatem - and other sheikhs with whom I spoke - are looking at an awakening that goes beyond groups of fighters. They talk of forming a new political party - nonsectarian - built on a tribal base that includes Sunnis, Shiites and others. "The political people in authority in Iraq have failed," he says. "We cannot wait." Such a development may have to wait until Iraq holds provincial elections. But the ferment aroused by the sahwa movement is already shaking up Iraq's political scene. No one knows whether the movement will morph into one or several parties, or into job banks and army units or new militias. It has become the new military and political wild card in Iraq.