Juan Cole - Religious Shiites claim Victory

[realFedUp]

http://www.juancole.com

Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Religious Shiites claim Victory
Juan Cole, history professor at University of Michigan

Abdul Aziz al-Hakim claimed victory in the Sunday elections for the United Iraqi Alliance, the coalition of religious Shiite parties he leads. And this is what the winners, if they are winners, think of the US:

' "No one welcomes the foreign troops in Iraq. We believe in the ability of Iraqis to run their own issues, including the security issue," Mr Hakim said. "Of course this issue could be brought up by the new government." '

The idea that the revolutionary Shiite al-Dawa Party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the Badr Organization (trained by the Iranian revolutionary guards), all of them with close ties to Tehran, would welcome a permanent US military presence in Iraq was always a chimera. Most Shiites who voted on Sunday thought they were voting for an end to US hegemony in their country. This is why it is so bizarre that the US Right is interpreting the elections as a victory for the Bush administration.

Interim President Ghazi al-Yawir expressed hope that a substantial withdrawal of Coalition troops could be effected by the end of 2005, and this hope seems widely shared in Iraq. Al-Yawir cautioned that it would be unwise for US forces to just up and leave immediately, given the chaos in the country, and the Western press often latched on to this part of his statement rather than his call for withdrawal by the end of the year. That is, it might on the surface look as though al-Hakim and al-Yawir are in disagreement, but they probably are not.

Interim Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan also said that it was too soon for US troops to pull out. But Shaalan is unlikely to be powerful in the new government, and it probably isn't important what he says.
Complaints continued Tuesday that substantial numbers of Iraqis had been excluded from voting because of a shortage of ballots. In the north, bitter Chaldean Christians charged that the Kurdish leadership deliberately kept ballots from reaching them.
continued

[Inland]

1. Amazingly enough, majority ethnic group cheers majority rule.

Bush claims an amazing transformation, and in fact it is a petty little trick, like pulling a rabbit out of a rabbit hutch.

[Name removed]

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[realFedUp]

3. well, when you have state run news networks cheerleading....

Clue to network and cable news...do you think
we are all stupid out here? Just give us the
facts and numbers straight up without commentary.

We'll decide from there.

[Straight Shooter]

4. Talking point rebuttal: Islamic Revolutionary theocracy

Right wing says, "Election victory."

We say, "Islamic Revolutionary theocracy."

Now the theocratic Islamists instead of the secularists will be killing thousands who resist their rule. The "game" never changes, only the major players. The innocents will continue to die.

[MidwestTransplant]

7. Bah, Tomato(e)/Tomato(e)

Same thing really. Don't tell the Whitehouse the truth though.

[realFedUp]

8. Ayatollah Bush

Some theocracies are just better than others....