A Bloody Piece Of Paper

Here is this morning’s propaganda from the AP (courtesy of the Bucks County Courier Times):

Iraq’s landmark constitution seemed assured of passage Sunday after initial results showed minority Sunni Arabs had fallen short in an effort to veto it at the polls. The apparent acceptance was a major step in the attempt to establish a democratic government that could lead to the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

I read those two sentences over a couple of times and found myself a bit unnerved by the supposition and obfuscation in the lead paragraph of what is supposed to be a “hard news” story, and a critically important one at that.

Sunni Arabs did indeed try to “veto it at the polls” (interesting that the word “veto” is used here, which is commonly associated with an act of Congress and not an actual vote by constituents…yes, I know I’m splitting hairs, but the AP lead is an example of more “word games” to make this process look more legitimate than it actually is). Large numbers of Sunnis voted against the constitution because their religious and political leaders told them to do so (as stated in a New York Times article accessible from this link).

You can access Part 1 and Part 2 of these great posts by Armando at The Daily Kos that, I think, analyze this situation very well. Only a naïve simpleton (paging Dubya) would think that the passage of this constitution despite an overwhelming Sunni dissent will lessen the violence in that deteriorating country.

I also think this passage in the New York Times article is interesting:

“…bringing more Sunni Arabs into the political process certainly does not mean they will accept the new power structure. Those Sunni Arabs who walked along largely empty streets on Saturday to polling centers appeared, by early and unscientific counts, to widely favor a rejection of the constitution. Many articulated the most common Sunni complaint about the constitution - that it promoted a system of federalism in which the central government would cede significant powers to the regions, possibly allowing oil-rich Shiite and Kurdish areas of Iraq to become virtually separate entities.”

“Virtually separate entities,” huh? Well, the Kurds have wanted their own country throughout, and this might just be another step in that process. And the Shiites might end up with the same arrangement, despite all of our efforts to curry their favor (and they’ll of course have the oil, which all of this is ultimately about anyway).

Our dear MSM cousins continue to spoon feed us this fantasy that, somehow, this is a milestone into the establishment of an Iraqi democracy, when it fact it is another step in the process of the splinterization (word?) of that entire area into separate states. And without a strong hand of one type or another to keep everyone in line (and let’s face it; Saddam Hussein – mean, nasty, murderous SOB that he was – was a strong hand), civil war is inevitable.

And by the way, here and here are links to more reasons why we should end this fiasco now and bring our people home (and we can honor those who have already fallen and their great sacrifice by FINALLY, FINALLY holding our leaders accountable!).