02.17.05

Allawi on Iraq

Posted in Opinion at 3:15 pm by jw

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32568-2005Feb17.html

Definitely an interesting read. What I take away from it is:

  • Iran has significant influence over the new Iraqi government (Sistani was in Iran for a long time and Chalabi was selling US secrets to Iran). Links to Syria also seem to exist.
  • The new government is not beneath using religious fear to get people voted in (telling people their wives would divorce them and they’d burn in hell if they voted for Allawi).
  • The new government ran on a religious platform, not on any specific promises.
  • The new government wants to return to the original de-Baathification plan and eliminate anyone who was associated with the Ba’ath party.
  • The new government wants to take the fight even more strongly to the insurgency.
  • Shi’ites control around 66% of the seats, Kurds about 30% and Sunni around 4%.
  • This new government is the one writing the constitution for Iraqis to live by and the Shi’ite religious party has an absolute majority to push through whatever they want.
  • Allawi thinks Iraq is screwed up enough that, once again, he’s leaving.

It may be just me, but unless things are played very carefully in the next 6-12 months the US may have achieved exactly what they fought so long to avoid and handed Iraq to Iran.

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