An Iowa State University political science professor says U.S. and British forces face a security challenge in the streets of Iraq as they try to re-establish law and order. James McCormick says it’s going to take some time, and it will be fraught with danger because soldiers will be vulnerable to sniper attacks and suicide bombings. McCormick says it’ll be awhile before the “coalition of the willing” can turn over the responsibility for keeping the peace to local Iraqi police forces. McCormick says it’ll also be difficult to peace together a governing coalition for Iraq. McCormick says the big question is how intense will be the rivalries among Iraq’s religious and ethnic groups. McCormick says he thinks the Kurds in the northern part of Iraq will pose the greatest problem because they’ve been functioning on their own for the past 10 years under the “no-fly” zone imposed after the Persian Gulf War. McCormick says the U.S. also has to figure out how to get the international community, and countries like France and Germany, involved in rebuilding Iraq.
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