Seeking peace at home, abroad this Christmas Eve 2011

There could be no more poignant time than Christmas Eve to observe and appreciate the advance of peace: the end of the Iraq War, at least for Americans and, hopefully, for Iraqis.

Often, war concludes in only the most literal sense - combat ends - but continues in other agonizing ways. The victors occupy the vanquished. The vanquished are humiliated in a way that virtually assures a thirst for vengeance and a recommencement of hostilities.

The Iraq War has ended with its own unique and possibly tragic post-war condition: an unresolved sectarian divide. Fortunately, the Iraqi Constitution was drafted with a safety valve designed to prevent devolution into armed strife. Any two or more contiguous Iraqi provinces may form a semi-autonomous Region; such a Region has long existed in the Kurdish North. Currently, observers speculate that the Sunni minority may be maneuvering to form a Sunni region and that Shiite President Maliki is resisting, desirous to institutionalize permanent Shiite hegemony over the entirety of Iraq.

Ominously, Maliki has arrested Iraq's Sunni vice president on sedition charges, thrusting the nation into political crisis just a day after completion of U.S. withdrawal. In the best scenario the present crisis resolves, perhaps via Iraq's constitutional provision for regions joined in loose federalism, and a lasting peace emerges.

Many of us have held strong opinions about the Iraq War. Was it a mistake? Was it worth it? Is it truly over? Should we have withdrawn completely or rather have maintained a stabilizing force in Iraq?

Let's defer this inevitable debate at least beyond the Christmas season so that we Americans can unite now in thankfulness that the war is over for us, and, more particularly, for our brave troops who served steadfastly and honorably in tamping down what was almost full-scale sectarian warfare. Their courage delivered to Iraqis the chance they now have to forge a unified and peaceful nation.

On the home front, compromise and political consensus remain elusive. Our politics and our body politic seem as sharply divided as ever. In one sense, it is a good thing, since democracy thrives on freedom of expression and lively debate. On the other, it is worrisome, because any society depends upon some organizing consensus. If we disagree about everything all of the time, it is hard to see how society and government can function. And there is plenty of dysfunction on display in the nation's capital.

Ignoring the formal political parties for the moment, we have seen two grassroots political movements well up amidst our economic crisis - the tea party and Occupy Wall Street. Singular issues have incensed each movement. The tea party faithful were infuriated by, and remain hostile to, the Democrats' health care legislation, seeing it as a woefully ill-timed expansion of an already-unsustainable welfare state. Occupy seems most angry about the extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy. Interestingly, a solid majority of Americans agree with the tea party on health care and Occupy on taxes.

Maybe this is the "grand bargain" - repeal of the health care act in exchange for ending the Bush tax cuts.

Republicans passed the Bush tax cuts when they controlled the White House and Congress. The health care act passed when Democrats had similar control. One-party rule can lead to extreme acts. Undoing those actions could demonstrate - and generate - some badly needed functionality and domestic harmony and tranquility, the pursuit of which would be most appropriate in keeping with this season.

Red Jahncke heads the Townsend Group, a business consulting firm in Greenwich and is a regular contributor to The Day.