US may have to accept Shi'ites' key role in governing Iraq

[NNN0LHI]

http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/commentary/story/0,4386,198797,00.html

PATRICK E. TYLER
THE NEW YORK TIMES


BAGHDAD - Men in turbans have seldom fit the profile of rescuers of American foreign policy. But the day may come in Iraq when the majority Shi'ites save the victory that United States President George W. Bush is seeking to preserve against a rain of reversals.

With the deaths of two dozen Americans in combat in central Iraq in the last eight weeks, the Bush administration is trying hard to blame desperate Baathists, 'dead enders' from Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, criminals and terrorists for the violence.

But to step back in Iraq is to see that the Sunni Muslim minority north and west of Baghdad is in the early stages of rebellion. Sporadic violence has become more concerted every day. There may be no central command, but among the Sunni warrior class, no road map to resistance is needed. snip

The question for President Bush is whether he could ever accept an ayatollah as an ally. He may have to and, in any case, it will be up to the Iraqis.

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[On the Road]

1. Well, No Shit, Sherlock!

(I'm referring to Bush.)

We've gone on record as wanting to introduce democracy. What a revolutionary idea to include 2/3 of the population.

[Trajan]

2. SO: ....

The Brigade of Bristling Arrogance starts a little party, inviting ALL their friends and showing them heaven on earth: ... the ability to see underneath the philosophy of men, and view the mystical truth submerged ...

THEN: they set a plan in action: .... to free the Middle East from the yoke of "Islamic Fundamentalism", as well as the fumbling moderate states who enable these subhumans .....

Then: they put THEIR plan into motion, denying it was their plan, and lying through their TEETH to gain a foothold, nay, a FINGERNAIL hold of a justification for war, .... and, using the MINIMUM amount of personnel and on the cheap: ... charge into a 3rd world nation against a 5th world army .....

The modern BLITZKRIEG, now known as "Shock N Awe" is unleashed on the battlefield ...

Looking VERY feeble and ill planned: the charge stumbles in the dust and grime of the desert ..... but mistaking their opponents great fault as their own greater glory, they glowingly sing their own honors and praises as their weak enemy stumbles in his tattered boots and fades ....

"THE GLORIOUS LEADER HAS LEAD OUR MIGHTY NATION TO FAME AND HONOR ON THE BATTLEFIELD ..... " .....

The fearless Leader carries the bloody totems of battle into a triumph, though he himself had NEVER smelt the blood of his enemies, he instead parades with them in garish burlesque, mocking the TRUE heroes as he assumes THEIR glory in their stead ....

A mannequin wears the shining armor ..... and the mighty apollo stands naked to the world .. shivering .....

But: ... the totems have shriveled into pisspots, as their vanquished fallen rise again, and punish the arrogance of the mouthy triumphal leader .... NOT yet again showing HIM war, but punishing instead those who MAKE war at his beckon ...

The triumphant parade was a travesty, the self congratulation unwarranted, and the glory dimmed by reality ....

Now: .... Islamic fundamentalism, that which was MOST non grata, is now standing in the wings, primping for its grand entrance on the stage, UNhired by the director, and unstoppable by the Brigade of Arrogance, which gambled and lost on a dusty plain in modern Mesopotamia .....

Their dream-heaven now nothing more than a philosophical waterloo .. ALL their plans broken and floundering, with their best laid ideas dashed on the rocks of reality ...

The Neocons who planned this war did so thinking it was one step in a thousand steps ....

THIS was their maiden voyage ..

THIS was their chance to prove to the world that THEY knew what was best, and what was real .....

They have failed, miserably so ....

Islamic republics are NOT democracies ...... they are theocracies ....

Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, Feith, Wurmser, Kristol, Perle, Bolton, Cambone, Gingrich, AEI/PNAC et al ... are QUITE wrong in their calculus ..... and now they can only watch as the reality spoils their plans .....

As IF they ever had a chance .....

In the meantime: ... innocent men die trying to dance to their impossibly ridiculous music ......

Pitiful ......