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October 4, 2005
You Think We Have a War Now In Iraq? You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet!
There is not much to say about this except that it almost ensures the Sunnis will resort to even more violence. They will feel that the Shiites and Kurds rigged the election, changed the rules in mid-game, and are not serious about resolving or including them in the new government. This seems like the absolute worst scenario. The Sunnis, with great reason, will be very angry. The NY Times reports:
Iraq's Shiite and Kurdish leaders quietly adopted new rules over the weekend that will make it virtually impossible for the constitution to fail in the coming national referendum.
The move prompted Sunni Arabs and a range of independent political figures to complain that the vote was being fixed.
Some Sunni leaders who have been organizing a campaign to vote down the proposed constitution said they might now boycott the referendum on Oct. 15. Other political leaders also reacted angrily, saying the change would seriously damage the vote's credibility.
Under the new rules, the constitution will fail only if two-thirds of all registered voters - rather than two-thirds of all those actually casting ballots - reject it in at least three of the 18 provinces.
The change, adopted during an unannounced vote in Parliament on Sunday afternoon, effectively raises the bar for those who oppose the constitution. Given that fewer than 60 percent of registered Iraqis voted in the January elections, the chances that two-thirds will both show up at the polls and vote against the document in three provinces would appear to be close to nil.
"This is a mockery of democracy, a mockery of law," said Adnan al-Janabi, a secular Sunni representative and a member of former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's party. "Many Sunnis have been telling me they didn't believe in this democratic process, and now I believe they are vindicated."
Who does the U.S. side with in this quarrel? Without Sunni participation a full scale civil war is almost assured. Won't that be a wonderful outcome of our invasion? How much worse can it get?
Posted by Chip Spear at October 4, 2005 9:46 AM
Comments
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Posted by: Anonymous at September 20, 2006 12:29 PM