The parliamentary election outcome is under dispute in Iraq. Sunnis have taken to the street in droves to protest.
AP – More than 10,000 people marched through Baghdad on Tuesday in support of a national unity government of Sunnis and Shiites, while members of the Shiite alliance expected to dominate the country’s new parliament met with Kurdish leaders to discuss a governing coalition.
According to the Asian Times,
the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) were the big winners – from 70% to 95% of the vote in the impoverished southern provinces; 59% in Baghdad; and nationally, well over 40% of the total (they’ve won in nine of Iraq’s 18 provinces plus the capital). It’s a relatively unexpected success considering the dreadful record of Ibrahim Jaafari’s Shi’ite-dominated government.
All those intimately allied with the US invasion and occupation were big losers. The Iraqi National List of US intelligence asset and former prime minister Iyad Allawi, also known as “Saddam without a moustache”, the man who endorsed the Pentagon bombing of the Shi’ite holy city of Najaf and Sunni Arab Fallujah – got a pitiful 14%.
Convicted fraudster and former Pentagon ally Ahmad Chalabi received less than 1% in Baghdad. The neo-conservatives of the American Enterprise Institute were predicting 5% for Chalabi (their overwhelming favorite) and 20% for Allawi; that’s proof enough they have no clue about what’s going on in Iraq.
Not unexpectedly, Shi’ites voted for Shi’ites, Sunnis for Sunnis and Kurds for Kurds. The result is the United States led invasion has produced a pro Iran ‘democracy’.
Bush has opened a Pandora’s box with his shock and awe tactics. The ultimate quagmire will keep mutating and unleashing its deadly new powers for years on end. And there is nothing anyone – not even the “indispensable nation” – can do about it. We have all been, and will remain, shocked and awed.
