more "success" in Iraq

Bush continues to divide - Iraq results show heavily divided country

As if it wasn't bad enough that he ripped apart the US, he then did his best to destroy years of US diplomacy and good will and now Iraq. With the election results coming in there is little doubt that the Iraq is a divided nation. The religious extremists have the upper hand and the puppets that Bush tried propping up were handed major losses. This fragmented environment seems to be a specialty of the Bush team. How long will Iraq continue to be Iraq before civil war breaks out?

The Shia religious coalition has won a total victory in Baghdad and the south of Iraq. The Sunni Arab parties who openly or covertly support armed resistance to the US are likely to win large majorities in Sunni provinces. The Kurds have already achieved quasi-independence and their voting reflected that.

The election marks the final shipwreck of American and British hopes of establishing a pro-Western secular democracy in a united Iraq.

Islamic fundamentalist movements are ever more powerful in both the Sunni and Shia communities. Ghassan Attiyah, an Iraqi commentator, said: "In two and a half years Bush has succeeded in creating two new Talibans in Iraq."

Iran will be pleased that the Shia religious parties which it has supported, have become the strongest political force.

Another victor in the election is the fiery nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia fought fierce battles with US troops last year.

"People underestimate how religious Iraq has become," said one Iraqi observer. "Iran is really a secular society with a religious leadership, but Iraq will be a religious society with a religious leadership." Already most girls leaving schools in Baghdad wear headscarves. Women's rights in cases of divorce and inheritance are being eroded.

Mission Accomplished.

(Americablog)