lowercase thought.
Friday, March 11, 2005
Bush-style Democracy in action.
Take a look at this graphic from CNN:
Is this the example of "democracy" that Bush talks about? Keep in mind that both the United Iraqi Alliance (Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's crew) and the Iraqi List (Ayad Allawi's crew) are Shi'a, as well as the Islamic Labor Organization (closely affiliated with the United Iraqi Alliance). The Kurdish Alliance and the Islamic Kurdistan Society are Kurdish, the Turkmen Front is Turkomen. That leaves 13 seats out of 275 to be represented by Sunnis. The Iraqiyun is basically the main Sunni party, headed by Ghazi al-Yawar (the U.S.-appointed Iraqi President seen here with stooge Jerry Bremer)--they got a grand total of 5 seats. Whoopee.
Whoever claims that the success of this election has caused the calls for Syrian withdrawl in Lebanon, the sham elections in Egypt, the pre-determined Palestinian vote, or the spotted local men-only elections in Saudi Arabia is fooling themselves out of misplaced hope. Max Boot's article in the LA Times last week is a perfect example of this self-congratulatory nonsense. The Lebanon situation has been simmering since 2000, and was only brought to a head with the assasination of Rafik Hariri allegedly by pro-Syrian forces. Mubarak's call for elections is nothing more than a global PR stunt.
Don't believe the hype. If you look at the internals of the situation the outlook isn't so rosy, nor has it happened overnight.
Is this the example of "democracy" that Bush talks about? Keep in mind that both the United Iraqi Alliance (Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani's crew) and the Iraqi List (Ayad Allawi's crew) are Shi'a, as well as the Islamic Labor Organization (closely affiliated with the United Iraqi Alliance). The Kurdish Alliance and the Islamic Kurdistan Society are Kurdish, the Turkmen Front is Turkomen. That leaves 13 seats out of 275 to be represented by Sunnis. The Iraqiyun is basically the main Sunni party, headed by Ghazi al-Yawar (the U.S.-appointed Iraqi President seen here with stooge Jerry Bremer)--they got a grand total of 5 seats. Whoopee.Whoever claims that the success of this election has caused the calls for Syrian withdrawl in Lebanon, the sham elections in Egypt, the pre-determined Palestinian vote, or the spotted local men-only elections in Saudi Arabia is fooling themselves out of misplaced hope. Max Boot's article in the LA Times last week is a perfect example of this self-congratulatory nonsense. The Lebanon situation has been simmering since 2000, and was only brought to a head with the assasination of Rafik Hariri allegedly by pro-Syrian forces. Mubarak's call for elections is nothing more than a global PR stunt.
Don't believe the hype. If you look at the internals of the situation the outlook isn't so rosy, nor has it happened overnight.
Docciavelli 7:10 AM