EDITORIAL: To thwart self-destruction.

Publication: Japan Times (Tokyo, Japan)

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Japan Times

May 24--Iraq's national unity government finally was inaugurated Saturday after the Parliament approved a list of 36 men and women appointed to the Cabinet of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. The government is the first constitutionally based one since President Saddam Hussein's was toppled in 2003. With the inauguration of the national unity government, Iraq's democratic process, started at the initiative of the United States, is complete. But the new government faces the huge and difficult task of ending sectarian violence and bringing reconciliation to the divided country.

U.S. President George W. Bush characterized the formation of the new Iraqi government as a "new day for the millions of Iraqis who want to live in freedom." But as if to remind Mr. al-Maliki of the difficult road lying...

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