IRAQ THE MODEL: "The Kurds and the UIA already have a clear vision about the shape of the government and they have internal agreement between them on the principals and what supports this thought is that both parties said more than once that they have conditions to ask from other parties but not from one another.

This makes one think expect the Kurdish-Shia alliance to show little flexibility in their negotiations with the rest of parties and I don’t think they will tolerate demands the consider “exaggerated” from the Sunnis or Allawi."

The UIA will soon be suffering the internal dissent common of factionalist "big" co-alitions: not enough power for all the top people. And none willing to give up their shot at power for another.

"It looks like the dispute over choosing the PM has escalated within the UIA itself that instead of two candidates, there are six of them now; Abdulmahdi and Abdulkareem al-Inizi from the SCIRI, Shahristani from the independents, Jafari and Jawad al-Maliki from the Dawa and Nadeem al-Jabiri from the virtue (Fadheela) party."

This is most welcome. Parties need clear "winners" -- who is the speaker/ representative/ leader of the party. And the not-leaders become loyal rivals (like McCain in the Reps of the US), or loyal opposition. Um, like Kennedy? Well, in theory.