deal with Saddam's followers

Those remarks were a thinly veiled message: Vote for Shiite religious candidates who will stand firm against Saddam's loyalists.

The Sunnis, in contrast, want a guaranteed stake in the new Iraq, and thus have pushed to end the purging of former members of Saddam's Baath party from the government, military and public life.

As public support for the war ebbs in the United States, American generals increasingly see victory as achievable only through a deal with Saddam's followers.