This New York Times article reports that people are beginning to think that Zalmay Khalilizad has tilted too far toward the Sunnis, angering the Shia. I’ve been a big supporter of his approach, but this piece illustrates the difficulty in Iraq: If you tilt too far toward one group, you risk alienating the other. And the most important group to keep on board is the Shia, because without them, it’s game over. This is one reason that those much-maligned decisions to de-Baathify extensively and to “disband” the Iraqi army were made. They might have been the wrong calls, but it is entirely understandable why they were made.