Iraq is dead!

[LuckyTheDog]

Long live West Iran!

http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/ns/news/story.jsp?id=2005082213450002374168&dt=20050822134500&w=RTR&coview=

:sarcasm:

[Teaser]

1. The Sunni-shi'ah civil war will never end now.

The Sunnis got fucked so hard with this constitution that they are going to have reconstructive surgery.

They are angry:

But Sunni Arabs, outraged at what they called a "breach of consensus", stood by a demand "federalism" be left out.

"We will campaign ... to tell both Sunnis and Shi'ites to reject the constitution, which has elements that will lead to the break-up of Iraq and civil war," Soha Allawi, a Sunni Arab member of the drafting committee, told Reuters.

"If they pass this constitution, then the rebellion will reach its peak," said Sunni delegate Hussein Shukur al-Falluji.

link

[rkc3]

3. And bush smiled when he considered the thought of a civil war in Iraq.

It's every thing I could have ever wished for - another ten years in Iraq and high oil prices forever.

[slackmaster]

5. Gee, I wonder how that happened...

Majority of Sunnis to Boycott Iraq election - poll

Andrea Shalal-Esa
Reuters
January 29, 2005

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seventy-six percent of Iraq's minority Sunni Arabs plan to boycott Sunday's election, according to a new poll by Zogby International for Abu Dhabi Television released on Friday.

The poll of 805 Iraqi adults living in Iraq also showed that 69 percent of Iraq's Shi'ite population and 82 percent of Sunni Arabs favored a rapid withdrawal of U.S. forces either immediately, or after an elected government is in place.

"There are deep divisions that exist, divisions that are so deep and pronounced that this election, instead of bringing people together, may very well tear them apart," said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute and the host of Abu Dhabi TV's "Viewpoint" program.

The poll, with a margin of error of 3.6 percentage points, showed that just nine percent of Sunni Arabs were likely to vote in the Jan. 30 election, while about 80 percent of Shi'ites were likely to or definitely planned to vote....

http://www.aaiusa.org/news/aainews012905.htm

Sunnis admit poll boycott blunder and ask to share power

Rory Carroll in Baghdad
Tuesday February 15, 2005
The Guardian

Iraq's Arab Sunnis will do a U-turn and join the political process despite their lack of representation in the newly elected national assembly, Sunni leaders said yesterday.
Many Sunnis protested that the election was flawed and unfair, but in the wake of Sunday's results, which confirmed the marginalisation of what was Iraq's ruling class, their political parties want to lobby for a share of power.

"Our view is that this election was a step towards democracy and ending the occupation," said Ayad al-Samaray, the assistant general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic party. He said unnamed Sunni leaders blundered in depicting the election as a deepening of the occupation.

The insurgency ravaging Iraq is based in Sunni areas, and there were fears that the violence would escalate if the once-dominant minority was further alienated. A call by clerics for a boycott, and threats by insurgents meant very few Sunnis voted in the January 30 poll....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1414818,00.html

[Teaser]

6. Explore your point further

Why did they boycott?

[slackmaster]

7. Because they were told by their leaders

That the election was a setup to lock down the USA's control of the country. That by itself is a reasonable point of view.

But it still made no logical sense for them not to participate in the election no matter how rigged they felt it was. Rigged or not, it's still the free exercise of a choice and an opportunity to express wishes even if you believe your wishes will be ignored. Boycotting did not accomplish anything resembling a rational goal.

I feel strongly about participating in elections even if you believe they serve no useful purpose. I cast my first vote in 1976 when I was 18 - for Jimmy Carter in the California Democratic primary. I have never skipped a vote, and would never do so. I feel it's like the famous Monty Hall/Marilyn Vos Savant logic problem in a sense. You will never lose by taking advantage of an opportunity to change your mind about something even if it appears on the surface your payoff matrix is likely to be a wash.

Take the thought another baby step - Had the Sunnis participated they would have some representation in the process underway now. They may have found something else to be unhappy about, but their current complaint would be moot.

[Nite Owl]

2. One of the reasons given for

not going all the way to Baghdad in Gulf War I was the risk of a theocracy. Well we got it now. The women of Iraq are far worse now than they were under Sadaam.

[jsamuel]

4. I sent this out

So much for a “free” Iraq. Say hello to west Iran. Theocracy is on the march! Women will not be allowed to do anything, much less vote. Even the most right leaning people on the internet are extremely upset by this one.



WMD – no, they fixed that one

Saddam – as one Iraqi said “We have thousands more Saddams now.”

Terrorists – Way more now than before

Freedom – Theocracy instead



What is left?



Nearly 1900 US soldiers have died and it is estimated that over 100,000 innocent Iraqis have been killed as well. For what? That is the question Cindy Sheehan is asking. For what “noble cause”?

[cthrumatrix]

8. funny...many "experts warned of this" before bush's invasion....but they

were ignored

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. I know

this is what is so maddening