Guardian Utd: US set for Iraq election retreat

[Jack Rabbit]

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Wednesday January 21

US set for Iraq election retreat
Britain now backs early poll
By Patrick Wintour, Michael White and Ewen MacAskill

The US-led coalition in Iraq is on the verge of bowing to Shia Muslim pressure for direct elections before the handover of power on June 30, the Guardian has learned.
According to British officials, the Blair government has been swayed by Shia arguments and the US is also shifting ground.
They believe that Paul Bremer, the US head of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) running Iraq, has been persuaded of the need for direct elections, provided it can be shown that they are practicable.
"Iraq could become a reasonably functioning democracy, or else it will eventually fall apart," said one senior British official. "Democracy loosens things up" . . . .
A shift in plans for elections follows a series of abrupt policy changes made by the coalition over the last few months, mainly forced by events on the ground, and will add to the sense of disarray in the CPA.

Read more.

[ScrewyRabbit]

1. Shows just how tied our hands are in Iraq

We're not really in control there.

[Hieronymus]

2. Bush caves in again.

This is an old tune by now.
Leadership? what leadership?:eyes:

[fizzana]

3. This is really going to make the Kurds and the Sunni happy.

Full elections will probably hand control over to the Shi'ites and in all probability, to the fundamental Shi'ites.

The Kurds already have a fully operative militia and they're probably not going to take too kindly to this.

[mikehiggins]

4. If this happens we'll all have to subscribe to BBC on cable

American media will never cover the collapse of Iraq into civil war, which is what will follow about twelve minutes after the last US soldiers leave.

Bush and his supporters have destroyed a nation, and quite possibly caused the very Armageddon their fundamentalist beliefs think is coming.

[iam]

7. mikehiggins

That's their job. Christians WANT Jesus to return and the ONLY way to do that is to destroy civilization. They just have to figure out a way to blame Clinton's naughty bits for all the destruction and death.

[Jack Rabbit]

5. Related editorial thread

Robert Scheer (The Nation): Give Iraqis the Election They Want started by Jack Rabbit Tuesday January 20 8:40 pm PST.

[Terwilliger]

6. kick

[truthspeaker]

8. well we said we were there to liberate them and establish a democracy

What's more liberating and democratic than direct elections?

[zanana]

10. Maybe we can have some here!

n/t

[Zero Gravitas]

9. lose/lose situation

we need time to create an independent judiciary, come up with a constitution, do a census, some up with a representative democracy that the Iraqis will accept and won't lead to civil war, but we can't spend much more time before the Iraqis lose patience with he process. Add into that Bush's irresponsibility and letting domestic political concerns trump reality and you have one man one vote, one time and Grand Ayatollah Sistemi (sp?) in charge of Iraq.

[truthspeaker]

13. who's "we"?

It's their country. We have no say in how they should govern it. We are entitled to an opinion, but they don't have to listen to us.

Will Islamist hardliners use a popular election to seize power? Probably. But Bush should have thought of that before he ordred the invasion and occupation.

[JPace]

11. An eventual civil war seems likely.....

it will be bloody and give birth to a
dictatorship of some kind, probably ruled
by a Shia cleric. Then another 20 or
30 years before calls for democracy
from within the population will be taken
seriously. I don't see a lot of difference
between what will happen to Iraq and what
happened in Iran. There is no short cut
to democracy.....the bush regime is living
a fantasy.

[jpak]

12. Can ChimpCo be trusted to supervise free and fair elections???

I don't think so.

Everyone knows the June 30th deadline is a nothing more than a Karl Rove election-year ploy.

and

Everyone knows that the proposed sham CPA caucuses are nothing more than a crude attempt by ChimpCo to install a US puppet government in I-raq.

Only the UN can be trusted to supervise elections in I-raq.

and

Everyone knows it will not happen before Karl's June 30th deadline.

Real freedom is not a GOP campaign stunt.

and

The I-raqi people know that.