Sunnistan

Is it any wonder the Sunnis questioned the outcome of the December 15, 2005 Iraq election? With a tanker truck seized with thousands of forged ballots from Iran, with the driver acknowledging there were other tanker trucks with forged ballots favoring Shiite Iraqi candidates, one can understand why the Sunnis wanted a recount because of the large Sunni voter turnout that was not reflected in the vote count -- and then a new election when they were turned down. No surprise they were turned down on both counts or the 10 extra seats they requested in the new parliament.

The Pentagon wasted hard earned taxpayer dollars trying to bribe Iraqi clerics to propagate effective propaganda to get their followers to vote for Americas hand picked puppets, or believe the stories planted in Iraqi newspapers by the soldiers hired by U.S. media consulting and media placement firms to believe the American spin .America still has not learned the lesson of “Take the Loot and Scoot,” practiced in the Muslim world, especially when it comes to Infidel loot for a fellow Muslim – a lesson America was last taught in the Bora Bora mountains of Afghanistan when it tried to capture Osama bin Laden by bribing local Muslim allies.

Billions of dollars earmarked for rebuilding Iraq have been diverted from reconstruction projects to fight the insurgency because of under-estimated security needs. This is the assessment made by Stuart Bowen, the special inspector-general for Iraq reconstruction. He said the funds had to be diverted from much needed water, sewage and electrical projects, to help cover the costs of providing security, and combating a consistent and aggressive insurgency.

The sectarian civil war is already in full swing. While Iraqi politicians and U.S. bureaucrats haggled over the formula of a national unity government, two months after national elections, the February 22, 2006 bomb attack that destroyed the gilded dome of the 1000-year-old Shiite mausoleum of Iman Ali al-Hadi in Samarra --- was the most graphic visual of the gilded political rubble the U.S. has created in Iraq, and also a sneak preview of the looming civil war in a united Iraq. Iraq is clearly sliding into anarchy as the sectarian bloodbath in the wake of the Golden Mosque bombing highlighted. The Sunnis boycotted the unity government talks as the sectarian violence spread to 168 Sunni mosques that were attacked, 10 imams killed and 15 abducted. It took Bush’s personal intervention to bring the parties back to the negotiating table. “I think the danger of civil war as a result of this attack has diminished, although I do not believe we are completely out of danger yet,” U.S. ambassador Zalmay Khalizad said after the talks resumed. He went on to warn Iraqi politicians that they risk a loss of America’s support if they do not form a genuine national unity government, saying America will not invest its resources in institutions run by secterians. Why not? That is exactly what it should be doing. Why should Iraqis have to be subjected to several more years of secterian carnage and wait another five to seven years for a reliable electricity supply that runs 24 hours a day?

The sectarian violence gets worse after every election America stage manages. Any wonder the U.S. cannot train an Iraqi military capable of replacing U.S. military personnel that belongs back home? It is impossible to do so. Iraq is already torn apart by sectarian religious and cultural centrifugal forces that America can only manage constructively if it acknowledges the country cannot be kept together unless America makes a long term commitment, similar to what it did in Japan, Germany, Korea and other mis-handled war trophies. To pull troops out of Iraq prematurely because of the political spin benefits during the 2006 congressional elections is short sighted and self defeating. It will give al-Qaeda the victory it has been promising.
The new constitution Iraq overwhelmingly approved in a referendum on October 15, 2005 created three defacto states. Shiite in the south, Kurdish in the north, and Sunni in the center. Local laws are superior to national law. The Shiites in the south and the Kurds in the north will own newly discovered oi reservesl. It should therefore not come as a surprise that the Shiites and Kurds do not want to allow substantive amendments to the constitution, especially to the provision that keeps the central government weak. The Sunnis participated in the election believing they would be able to amend the constitution. Another reason for the ongoing violence that will only get worse if America leaves prematurely or tries to keep a united Iraq.