Iraqi government has finally been created... by Maliki joining forces with Sadr and his death squad

[ck4829]

A Muslim cleric who once used a militia to resist the American invasion positioned himself as a big winner in Iraq's monthslong political deadlock Friday when his party threw its support behind the beleaguered prime minister.

The hard-line Shiite group led by Muqtada al-Sadr called it the start of its ascent to nationwide power — a specter sure to spook the United States.

Washington considers the cleric a threat to Iraq's shaky security and has long refused to consider his movement a legitimate political entity. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki may be unable to govern without him.

March elections failed to produce a clear winner and left the nation in turmoil — a power vacuum that U.S. military officials say has encouraged a spike in attacks by Sunni insurgents.

The cleric, whose militia once ran death squads out of the health ministry headquarters in Baghdad to target Sunnis, has been in self-imposed exile in Iran since 2007.

In 2008, a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive broke the grip of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in Baghdad and Basra, routing Shiite death squads that terrorized Sunni neighborhoods and had brought the country to the brink of civil war.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101001/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iraq

So... Secular Sunnis and Shias get the most votes, just to see the government turned over to death squads and religious nuts? This is what over thousands of people have died for?

[louis-t]

1. Anyone who didn't see this coming hasn't been paying attention.

Starting with the bush junta. Dreamers, every one.