Frustrated Iraqis wait, hope for government in summer heat

Fridays were a favorite of Sunni insurgents in Iraq; rich pickings for suicide bombers among the Shiites at prayer. The drumbeat of attacks has slowed since the sectarian war of 2006/07, and this past Friday only the heat pounded unforgiving off the concrete of Baghdad's al-Hurriya square. People prayed at midday before heading home. Life was slow -- too slow for the university professor, a Christian manning his late father's stationery store and waiting for a government. "Iraqis are abnormal," he said, refusing to give his name. Three months have passed since Iraqis voted for a government on March 7, and the failure to stitch together a coalition to fix some of what is broken in this shattered country, and hand out jobs to the loyal, is feeding frustration. Trust in the politicians, many of them exiles who arrived with the U.S. tanks in 2003, is at rock bottom -- fertile ground for extremists who laid low for the election in hope of reward.