Time: The Baghdad Balancing Act

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The U.S. is learning it can't pick sides in the sectarian bloodbath that has unfolded over the past year as ballooning Sunni and Shi'ite death squads have played a gruesome game of tit-for-tat. Last fall, a senior U.S. intelligence official in Baghdad explained that one side would always seek to take advantage of the other's weakness, which necessitated that the U.S. move to weaken and dismantle both in equal measure. To demonstrate, he put his hands up at the same level and brought them down simultaneously, as if closing a window.

But getting the Shi'ite-dominated Iraqi government to display the same even-handedness has been a challenge. In the West Wing on Monday, President Bush and Vice President Cheney spoke with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki via video conference. Gesturing from a large flat panel screen in the cramped Situation Room, al-Maliki assured Bush and Cheney he was committed to implementing the most recent security plan for Iraq in an "even-handed manner," according to the White House. That was exactly what Bush and Cheney wanted to hear.

Honoring that commitment has been made easier for al-Maliki by the restraint shown by the Shi'ite militias over the past month. U.S. military commanders say the Shi'ite death squads have largely gone to ground during Operation Imposing Law. U.S. military officials also believe Muqtada al-Sadr, the rabble-rousing militant who is also a crucial political ally of al-Maliki, has gone to ground in Iran during the first weeks of the surge. And there were no major confrontations even when U.S. and Iraqi forces entered the militia stronghold of Sadr City.

Shi'ite restraint, however, has provided an opening for Sunni suicide bombers, say American commanders. A rash of car bombings against Shi'ite markets and neighborhoods over the past month has gone largely unanswered. Until now. Recent police reports indicate that the restraint of the Shi'ite death squads is coming to an end. Over 30 bodies were found shot execution style in Baghdad on Monday, most thought to be reprisals carried out by Shi'ite militias.

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