Iraqi Sunni's apparently using U.S. Democratic playbook
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Iraq's Sunni population is crying foul after the recent elections in their country, upset because they are finding that they aren't happy at all with being relegated to a minority party after years of Saddam's rule there.
The tactics that the Sunnis are now taking look like they come straight out of the Democratic party playbook here in the U.S.A., lose the election and then cry about it and claim that it must be the result of fraud. The ironic part (in both cases) being that both parties were notorious for their own dirty tricks and election fraud in the past, stuffing ballots, having dead people vote, and using fear and intimidation tactics to get voters to show up at polls, or keep voters away if necessary.
It's a tough lesson for the Sunnis to learn. They ran the country with Saddam in the past, and yet now they are bit players and have almost no hope of holding heavy influence in the country unless they can partner with either the Kurds of Shi'ites and neither of them are that interested (or trusting of) in any deals they might be able to make with the Sunnis.
A delicate balance must be maintained though, otherwise the Sunnis might very well go back to insurgent tactics and continued rebellion against any and all forms of authority in Iraq. If that happens, then a real and declared civil war might break out in Iraq. Hopefully things won't come to that point, and hopefully the Sunnis can be accomodated enough to keep them involved politically, rather than these other ways.
In anycase, original news article follows. Please see original article for complete story.
Shi'ites dismiss fraud claims, talks continue
By Gideon Long
Sat Dec 24,10:12 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Triumphant Iraqi Shi'ites dismissed allegations that fraud helped them win last week's election, as President Jalal Talabani met their disappointed Sunni opponents on Saturday to try to calm sectarian tensions.
As political squabbling continued in Baghdad, national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told reporters in Najaf that he wanted detainees being released by the U.S. military to be re-arrested. They include Saddam Hussein's weapons scientists Rihab Taha and Huda Ammash -- "Dr Germ" and "Mrs Anthrax."
A lawyer for some of the detainees, believed still to be at a U.S. base for their own protection, dismissed the demand as "pure theater" and said they would soon leave Iraq.
Speaking a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Iraq and announced a modest cut in troop levels, Rubaie also said he expected 50,000 American soldiers to leave Iraq next year, with the remaining 100,000 departing in 2007.
The comments may carry little weight and were at odds with U.S. and Iraqi government's avowed policy that withdrawals will not be timetabled but will depend on circumstances, especially the training of Iraqi forces and levels of rebel violence.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who served Christmas Eve dinner to troops in Mosul on Friday, told American soldiers in Iraq a day earlier their numbers could soon fall by 7,000.
There was no further word on the fate of six Sudanese, including a diplomat, who were kidnapped in Baghdad on Friday, nor of four Western hostages who have been held by Islamist militants for nearly a month.
Friends and relatives of the four -- two Canadians, a Briton and an American -- said they had placed a series of radio and newspaper adverts in Arabic appealing for their release.
Iraq's tiny Christian community prepared for Christmas at the end of a week in which seasonal goodwill between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims has been in short supply.
After Friday's show of strength by Sunnis, who marched through Baghdad in their tens of thousands calling for a rerun of the December 15 election, which they allege was fixed, the country's main Shi'ite coalition hit back on Saturday.
They accused their opponents of being sore losers and insisted the country's next prime minister should come from within their own Shi'ite Islamist ranks.
"There will be no retreat and no rerun of the election," said Jawad al-Maliki, a senior member of one of the main parties in the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Shi'ite alliance which appears to have triumphed in the vote. "In the end we have to accept the results and the will of the people."
... more at linked article
emphasis added
Nice to see that the Shi'ites are preaching "the will of the people." I wish that they'd come over here and teach a few individuals here the meaning of those words. (Start the re-education process with the C.O.L.... he's in dire need of such treatment).
The tactics that the Sunnis are now taking look like they come straight out of the Democratic party playbook here in the U.S.A., lose the election and then cry about it and claim that it must be the result of fraud. The ironic part (in both cases) being that both parties were notorious for their own dirty tricks and election fraud in the past, stuffing ballots, having dead people vote, and using fear and intimidation tactics to get voters to show up at polls, or keep voters away if necessary.
It's a tough lesson for the Sunnis to learn. They ran the country with Saddam in the past, and yet now they are bit players and have almost no hope of holding heavy influence in the country unless they can partner with either the Kurds of Shi'ites and neither of them are that interested (or trusting of) in any deals they might be able to make with the Sunnis.
A delicate balance must be maintained though, otherwise the Sunnis might very well go back to insurgent tactics and continued rebellion against any and all forms of authority in Iraq. If that happens, then a real and declared civil war might break out in Iraq. Hopefully things won't come to that point, and hopefully the Sunnis can be accomodated enough to keep them involved politically, rather than these other ways.
In anycase, original news article follows. Please see original article for complete story.
Shi'ites dismiss fraud claims, talks continue
By Gideon Long
Sat Dec 24,10:12 AM ET
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Triumphant Iraqi Shi'ites dismissed allegations that fraud helped them win last week's election, as President Jalal Talabani met their disappointed Sunni opponents on Saturday to try to calm sectarian tensions.
As political squabbling continued in Baghdad, national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told reporters in Najaf that he wanted detainees being released by the U.S. military to be re-arrested. They include Saddam Hussein's weapons scientists Rihab Taha and Huda Ammash -- "Dr Germ" and "Mrs Anthrax."
A lawyer for some of the detainees, believed still to be at a U.S. base for their own protection, dismissed the demand as "pure theater" and said they would soon leave Iraq.
Speaking a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Iraq and announced a modest cut in troop levels, Rubaie also said he expected 50,000 American soldiers to leave Iraq next year, with the remaining 100,000 departing in 2007.
The comments may carry little weight and were at odds with U.S. and Iraqi government's avowed policy that withdrawals will not be timetabled but will depend on circumstances, especially the training of Iraqi forces and levels of rebel violence.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who served Christmas Eve dinner to troops in Mosul on Friday, told American soldiers in Iraq a day earlier their numbers could soon fall by 7,000.
There was no further word on the fate of six Sudanese, including a diplomat, who were kidnapped in Baghdad on Friday, nor of four Western hostages who have been held by Islamist militants for nearly a month.
Friends and relatives of the four -- two Canadians, a Briton and an American -- said they had placed a series of radio and newspaper adverts in Arabic appealing for their release.
Iraq's tiny Christian community prepared for Christmas at the end of a week in which seasonal goodwill between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims has been in short supply.
After Friday's show of strength by Sunnis, who marched through Baghdad in their tens of thousands calling for a rerun of the December 15 election, which they allege was fixed, the country's main Shi'ite coalition hit back on Saturday.
They accused their opponents of being sore losers and insisted the country's next prime minister should come from within their own Shi'ite Islamist ranks.
"There will be no retreat and no rerun of the election," said Jawad al-Maliki, a senior member of one of the main parties in the United Iraqi Alliance (UIA), the Shi'ite alliance which appears to have triumphed in the vote. "In the end we have to accept the results and the will of the people."
... more at linked article
emphasis added
Nice to see that the Shi'ites are preaching "the will of the people." I wish that they'd come over here and teach a few individuals here the meaning of those words. (Start the re-education process with the C.O.L.... he's in dire need of such treatment).
