Quote:
Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
2. And say the sunnis boycott, they will learn that next election they should show up.
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This of course all hinges on your assumption that the people who are disenfranchised, be it out of fear of violent reprisal or stupidity in listening to the mullahs crying boycott, will channel their feeling of second class citizenship into a renewed effort at the ballot box. The fact that they will be stuck with fewer seats to vote for because of the initial governmental structure being created makes this ballot box effort even less likely in my book, which is why I wish a different decision had been made.
How is
anyone who lives/lived in Fallujah being registered at this point? Or Samarra? It may be the fault of the few wackos, but it's a whole group of people who may be getting left out of the future of Iraq. I don't see why this is any less unfortunate than the way the Sunnis kept the Shiites down (and yes I am speaking metaphorically and don't expect the rape rooms to reopen). To me it's a big deal, and unsurprisingly, I think Ty is right to question it. If he questioned it after the fact you'd just say he's a second guesser.
This nation building stuff is hard. I think we've proven this many times over just in the reversals we've made during our Iraq exploits. But as you say, I can give it some time. It will be an interesting year for the Iraq project.
