Iraqi Shiite Muslim coalition wins most votes

[D_Raay]

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aVI2A9pzCX0s&refer=top_world_news

The Shiite Muslim coalition won the most votes in Iraq's National Assembly elections with 47.6 percent of the ballot. The result falls short of the two-thirds majority needed to form a government and indicates that a coalition administration may be formed around a secular figure such as interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.

Read that carefully again. Only an American-style election would see the guy who came in dead last get the top job.

The purpose of the "recount" of the Iraq election was to reduce the Shi'ite majority to a "plurality", which would allow Bush to impose a coalition government with his puppet still in charge.

[ASsman]

COALITION OF THE WILLING BIYATCH! - Dave Chapelle

Anyways, yah this really kicks ass. Puts a damper on your "wohooo elections, 100,000 lives for liberty!" .

[Schmeltz]

Well, what would you rather spend three hundred billion dollars to get? A secular administration built around the guy with the big guns, or Iran junior facing down a Sunni insurgency? If the nation of Iraq is going to be salvaged from this destructive mess, puppet governments are probably a more palatable way to go about things initially.

[Echewta]

Puppet governments? That certainly doesn't sound like freedom is on the march kinda talk.

[Schmeltz]

We'll have to put up with it unless we want some Iran-is-on-the-march kinda talk. It certainly pales in comparison to free elections in a climate of open political participation, but that's really too much to expect from the current situation, methinks. It will be some time before the American troops are able to compensate for the destruction they have caused; until then I'd rather hear about some limited form of democracy for Iraqis than see them get passed off to regional strongmen.