While Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki should devote more effort to negotiating and compromising with the Sunni community than he has to cracking down on its leaders and activists, he nonetheless has before him the daunting task of consolidating a Shia-led Iraqi state with no natural allies in the rest of the Arab world. And the Sunni community, now buffeted by Al Qaeda on one side and the Shia state on the other, has never had much interest in helping Maliki stabilize Iraq’s new political order.