Both Kurds and the central government have long claimed Kirkuk as their own — and many residents and Western observers fear that the awarding of the contract, along with the bonanza of jobs and cash expected to follow, may decisively stoke hostility among the Kurds, Arabs and Turkmens who live here.
Beyond that it will stand as yet another in the long train of crude, cynical political ploys to inflame millions of Americans and stoke hostility to Obama and the Democrats.
The easyJet founder, Sir Stelios hasi-Ioannou, has further stoked hostilities with the airline's board ahead of Thursday's AGM, accusing them of "malicious acts" and a "string of dirty tricks" after company lawyers sought details of his family's voting agreements – in what the airline described as a routine letter to shareholders.
The lack of notification, he said, had stoked hostility in a usually liberal community.
At the time of the trial and long afterwards, the tabloid papers stoked hostility towards Hindley, and many factors contributed to their vehemence.
That government is waging its own struggle for political supremacy against the Pakistani military and intelligence establishments which have a vested interest in stoking hostility toward India, and which have, in ways that have been irrefutably documented, aided the terrorists' jihad against India.
The need to reach out to the Chinese became especially acute when in the wake of the peaceful uprisings that erupted throughout Tibet in 2008, the Chinese authorities used its awesome media firepower to stoke ethnic hostility between Tibetans and Chinese.
Many residents fear the Islamists could one day return to power in the valley, an anxiety that, paradoxically, has stoked simmering hostility toward the militants' most famous victim.
The sense that some people are using them for convenience is stoking the hostility, and legitimate users say the public are vocal in their criticisms.
In the long term, Isis could turn out to be the gravedigger of the Sunni Arabs in Iraq, where they are 20 per cent of the population, by stoking the hostility of the other 80 per cent of Iraqis, who are Shia or Kurds.
