The New York Times reports:

In a stark reversal from earlier this year, when Sunni Arabs boycotted national elections here, a broad gathering of Sunni sheiks, clerics and political leaders formed a political alliance on Saturday, seeking to win back the political ground they had lost to Shiites.

The meeting was the first wide-scale effort by Iraq’s embittered and increasingly isolated Sunnis to band together politically, and was broadly attended by what organizers said was about 2,000 Sunni Arabs from Baghdad and nearby cities. The gathering was an implicit acknowledgment that it had been a mistake to turn away from the political process and allow Shiites to control the government for the first time in modern Iraqi history.

While it’s unfortunate though somewhat understandable that the Sunnis felt disenfranchised following Iraq’s liberation, they must return to the political process for themselves and for Iraq. Now that they have recognized this as an obligation, we will hopefully see a continuous improvement in federal and sectarian relations, along with a gradual reduction of violence. As many pundits and politicians have already observed, the insurgency won’t end overnight, but with no major holdouts remaining in the political sphere and continued erosion of their constituencies (as well as their supply of arms and men), it appears that Iraq is at least on the right track to cleansing the insurgents.

I think this is the most important paragraph:

Sunnis will also try to cast a wider political net and reach out to secular Shiites as well as to Kurds, Mr. Pachachi said. He said he had met with Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister, a tough-talking secular Shiite, and they had agreed to join forces to compete with the more religious Shiite parties in the next election.

Here we see the true beginnings of a rich democracy in Iraq. The Sunnis, faced with a smaller target demographic from the get-go, are seeking to expand their appeal to secular members of other sects. With this and other necessary compromises made by each party according to its needs, how long before strict sectarian lines melt into more nuanced political divisions? With parties adjusting their platforms and allegiances according to the evolving situation, it seems inevitable that a strong democratic tradition will emerge — a marketplace of ideas. It’s remarkable how a free nation, a society of free individuals, can rapidly adjust to change and spur on peaceful progress in all spheres of human activity; that is, how something as simple as the idea of freedom can lead to an evolutionary road to peaceful and successful solutions.