Means to an end?

One of the things that has always struck me as odd is the focus we have on reconciliation at the top of the political system. It seems to me that if this is a collective action problem and the votes of the people of Iraq are to be believed, then the events at the top of the political system are really irrelevant. What is important are events on the ground. I believe that the people of Iraq have always wanted to have a unified country under democratic leadership. The problem has been building institutions at the ground level strong enough to hold the line against suicidal terrorists and a backward, medieval social structure. The assumption that seems so pervasive in our political discourse, that the reason for the surge is to make room for a grand political deal at the top, is exactly backwards. Indeed, the political deal at the top isn't an end, it isn't even a means to an end. It is irrelevant.

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