KR: Elections may have made things worse, not better

[leftchick]

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/world/11645384.htm

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Two weeks of intense insurgent violence have made it crystal clear that Iraq's parliamentary elections, hailed in late January as a triumph for democracy, haven't helped to heal the country's deep divisions. They may have made them worse.

The historic election sheared off a thin facade of wartime national unity and reinforced ethnic and sectarian tensions that have plagued Iraq for centuries. Iraqis immediately began playing the roles the election results delivered to them: victorious Shiite Muslim, assertive Kurd, disaffected Sunni Arab. Within those groups lies a mosaic of other splits, especially between secularists and Islamists vying for Iraq's soul.

With little social cohesion, violence has soared, fueled by anger over foreign occupation and religious differences, while a semi-sovereign, disjointed government has taken over with little ability to control or appeal to groups behind the killings. At least 400 Iraqis have died in two weeks. U.S. casualties are also up. According to Icasualties.org, a Web site that tracks Iraq coalition casualties, 46 American service members died under fire in April, and 28 have died so far in May.

The heady, hopeful days surrounding the election seem more distant with each early-morning explosion that rouses Baghdad with the reliability of an alarm clock.

"Elections were a start, but it was a start with flaws," said Rassim al-Awadi of the Iraqi National Accord, the party led by former interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. "It has resulted in many mistakes. ... On the good side, nobody can say these people were not elected. But it did categorize us into Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds. Period." It wasn't supposed to have been this way.

[Solly Mack]

1. who didn't see that coming? show of hands.....

[leftchick]

7. too many " we predicted this to happen " to count.

sickening. :(

[NYC Liberal]

8. I laugh whenever the media talks about these things being 'surprising'

Like when they reported on no WMDs, the level of violence against US troops, etc.: always "nobody could have predicted this"

BS.....MILLIONS of us in Bush's "focus group" predicted it!!

[Solly Mack]

9. Yes, it's sickening and I feel helpless to stop the madness

and I hate feeling helpless.

[Jacobin]

2. but but but tommy friedman

says this was a glorious and bold and wonderful achievement...

[Pithy Cherub]

12. Right before his lemming leap with all the other *

lemmings as they jumped the shark and turned the corner.

[NNN0LHI]

18. Tom Friedman is the NYT's Geraldo Rivera n/t

[Straight Shooter]

3. Come on, all you nitwit Repubs. Wave your purple fingers now!

Writing on the wall, a hundred feet tall, but you can't read it with your head so far up your butt, now, can you?

[ckramer]

4. Boosh's purpose of invading Iraq wasn't to make it better

It's about oil and territories.

[bemildred]

5. How about no noticeable effect at all?

Other than to increase the size of the pile of horseshit
shovelled out in the attempt to sanitize the violent
dystopia we have made of Iraq?

[Roland99]

6. What? You mean "free" elections didn't act like the PNAC fairy dust???

Shocked I tell you.



Shocked.

[TahitiNut]

10. Can we say "QUAG(thedog)MIRE" ? (I knew we could.)

Or is it qWagmire? :eyes:

[glitch]

23. qWagmire. absolutely perfect. nt

[TahitiNut]

24. Eventually, we'll se an "evacuWation" of Iraq.

:evilgrin: Envision the U.S. evacuation of Vietnam ... without boat people.

[bpilgrim]

11. It was all lies from day one... election day was one of Iraq's most bloody

and it has only gotten worse since then but that didn't stop the media and our leaders from proclaiming otherwise for months :puke:

it's like they don't care that they are out of touch with reality nor who knows it.

thank GORE he 'INVENTED' the INTERNETs :bounce:

we are MORE informed than all of congress put together ;->

peace

[BrklynLiberal]

13. As Gomer would say, "Suh-prahz! Suh-prahz! Suh-prahz!"

I am stunned, I tell you. Just stunned! Who could have seen this coming? :sarcasm:

[Rose Siding]

14. Hannah Allam does great work

I can't explain how she retains access, but it should be a big CLUE for other journies that it's *possible*

[UpInArms]

15. this mal-administration's inability to have one lucid thought

is boggling.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/03/20050305.html

Today, people in a long-troubled part of the world are standing up for their freedom. In the last five months, we have witnessed successful elections in Afghanistan, the Palestinian Territory and Iraq; peaceful demonstrations on the streets of Beirut; and steps toward democratic reform in Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The trend is clear: In the Middle East and throughout the world, freedom is on the march. The road ahead will not be easy, and progress will sometimes be slow. But America, Europe and our Arab partners must all continue the hard work of defeating terrorism and supporting democratic reforms.



An optimist says, 'War is impossible.' A pessimist says, 'War is inevitable.' A realist says, 'War is inevitable unless we make it impossible.'

[The_Casual_Observer]

16. Elections had nothing to do with it. The war was a bad idea

to begin with. Nothing will fix it now.

[loyalsister]

17. More complicated than that

No one is talking about rule of law!
You can't have elections without a rudimentary system of laws. Since the fall of Sadaam, they have no real justice system. Without an established legal system, government is not workable.
Kind of like how when the first settlers got here they started writing various laws and ordinances to keep peace. Lo and behold, American Democracy is based largely on the European culture. And so, any emerging government should be based on it's culture and desired governmental system.
Unfortunately European culture included Imperialistic conquistadorian hero worship and we adopted that as a value and role.
And here we are blinded.
There should have been Iraqi laws broken when the prisoners were tortured at Abu Graib. That tells you a lot about why we are going about this so ass backwards. I'm not saying getting into it was a good idea. I'm just saying we are doing everything so very wrong to help the Iraqis get out of the mess we created. AND, there is probably a more realistic way to do it. Beginning with respecting their culture and what they want.

[nolabels]

19. The rule of law is a simplified version of the rule of the jungle

When you work on simpleton plane (as so many so called sophisticates actually do) you will see the world around you complicate.

The answer is simple, leave Iraq, them people over there are more than competent in figuring it out and solving problems them selves :hi:

[loyalsister]

20. Not really

When you have a tribal country diplomats can actually help- IF the UN and people experienced in the process are involved. There are people who are trained to do that.
If we were willing to take on a role like that it would be different.
We owe the people of Iraq more than just making a mess and leaving "them there people" there to fight a civil war.
Just leaving would be almost as heartless as starting it in the first place.

[nolabels]

22. The word "Heartless" implies we have some favor to give them

We have done no favor for them as of yet? As a matter of fact, WE (this U.S.A.) have done unspeakables to that whole area of the world. I suggest a little more research on the subject before contemplating how any US military occupation would solve anything in particular over there.

The only reason the US military is over there is to give those people HELL and try to whip them in to submission, and it's not working.

[leftchick]

25. indeed. The best case scenarion would be to get the troops out

NOW! Give them that 132 Billion the pentagon has just asked congress for as a start of compensation. (I am sorry we can't replace their loved ones :( ) And IMO here is no way the UN will go in right now with the US still there.

But this is all moot since the US plans to be there forever. No matter the cost in blood and dollars.

[ananda]

21. that's becuz

As we all know here, the Iraqi elections were just as much of a sham as our own. Everything done in Iraq for the past year has been designed to give the USA troops and the coalition a way out of responsibility for what's happening and what's going to happen, namely Civil War .. a lot of chaos and violence .. regression to less educated more fundamentalist Isamists taking charge in various places .. and not much of an infrastructure.

Anyone heard from River lately in her Baghdad Burning blog? I can guess why... no stability and no electricity for computers... or maybe something worse.

Sue