Iraq’s election result: a divided nation
Iraq is disintegrating. The first results from the parliamentary election last week show the country is dividing between Shia, Sunni and Kurdish regions.
Religious fundamentalists now have the upper hand. The secular and nationalist candidate backed by the US and Britain was humiliatingly defeated.
Chalk up another defeat for the neocons. They’ve been on a serious losing streak of late, haven’t they?
Sooner or later, events overtake the ignorant, no matter how lucky they are at first. None of the sadness developing in Iraq is a surprise to anyone with even a passing knowledge of the demographics of the region. Wolfowitz, however, was apparently unaware that Najaf and Karbala were Shi’a shrines, assuming that he was even aware of the frictions between the Salafi and the Shi’a.
There is one area in which the neocons in a few years will be able to claim success: the deBaathification of Iraq. However, it will come because of an alliance between Iraq and Iran and a bloodbath of the remaining Baathists who don’t flee. Of course, the neocons will have endowed us with a Shi’a ascendency that is virulently anti-Israeli, which was probably not their intent, and one that will terrify the monarchies and the Salafis and likely lead to more instability and violence, but hey, mission accomplished!
Their idea of a long-term viewpoint is, oh, two weeks.