Author: Gunner

When the Iraqi Sunnis threatened to boycott the January elections, I supported following through with the voting as planned and predicted that it would “only be a hard-learned lesson in democracy” if the Sunnis chose to shortchange themselves in the balloting. Shortly after the momentous elections, a secular Sunni leader voiced the accuracy of my prediction, talking of second thoughts among Sunni parties.

Now, weeks later, the Pentagon supports the truth of my statement.

Many Iraqis who had opposed the U.S.-led transition to democracy have begun reconsidering their position in light of the Jan. 30 elections, a Pentagon spokesman said Thursday.

Larry Di Rita, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, told reporters he knew of no leaders of the insurgency who have offered to end their opposition. He asserted that the elections have widened the circle of Iraqis who want to participate in the political process.

“The Iraqi people have demonstrated a clear sense of hope for the future, and that sense of hope is increasingly out of step with many of the people who were either on the fence or lending tacit support to the insurgency, so I would imagine a lot of those people are coming forward,” he said.

Don’t let people lie to you — sometimes, saying “I told you so” can be sweet.

The spokesman said the U.S. military facilitates contact between the interim Iraqi government and representatives of opposition or insurgent groups, but he said the military is not negotiating with any groups. Most of this work is being done by the U.S. Embassy and the Iraqi government, he said.

“I think the people who are involved in this know that the Iraqi transitional government has itself been doing its own analysis of who (among the insurgents) might be willing to end the fight and who is worth having those kinds of discussions with,” he added. “But it’s not our place to comment on that.”

Discussions with some of the insurgents? Fine, I have no problem with that. Some may actually see themselves as the patriots for their Iraqi homeland that some on the American left have tried to paint all the terrorists in Iraq as being. These are the ones that can be dealt with via negotiations, having witnessed their nation embracing democracy and working to form their own government.

Now, as for the radical Islamists and foreign terrorists, no deals. Only defeat or death. And how is that progressing?

Brig. Gen. David Rodriguez, a deputy director of operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there has been a small decline in insurgent attacks since the elections. He added that it may be too soon to draw any conclusions about the strength or size of the insurgency.

Di Rita declined to say whether it appears the insurgency is losing strength.

“The insurgency is what it is,” he said. “A large number of insurgents are being killed and captured. They are still capable of doing great harm. They’re killing a lot of innocent civilians inside of Iraq,” and as a result Iraq is a “country that has thrown itself back into the dark ages.”

And that, y’all, is a realistic assessment — a hell of a lot of progress, but a hell of a long way to go for the Iraqi people, their government and our fine troops.

It was said Iraqi elections couldn’t happen. It was said they should be postponed. I blogged that they could be done and should be done without delay.

The Iraqis voted. It came to pass, and approximately 8.56 million Iraqis dipped their finger into the inkwell.

Now the preliminary results have been announced, pending any challenges.

Iraqi leaders began looking ahead to forming a National Assembly and filling top posts after uncertified election results were released Sunday.

The Shiite-backed United Iraqi Alliance won a plurality of votes in the January 30 elections but fell short of an outright majority, the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq said.

The combined Kurdish parties, meanwhile, will nominate Jalal Talabani to be president of Iraq, Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barham Saleh told CNN on Sunday.

Talabani, leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, was a member of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council, the predecessor to the interim government that took over June 28, 2004.

Saleh, a member of the Kurdish alliance, said he was “proud” of the Kurdish participation in the election.

“This has been a long, arduous journey for us, to be accepted in the capital of Iraq and as national players,” he said.

The Kurds, who make up about 20 percent of Iraq, were brutally repressed under former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Saleh said it was imperative that the new government include all of Iraq’s peoples, however.

“We cannot afford another era of conflict and turbulence,” he said.

Luckily, the coalition-led interim government had the wisdom to put in some assurances against the dominance of one party — decisions going forward for the assembly elected are subject to requirements of a super-majority that one party could not have realistically hoped to attain. Negotiation and accommodation have been forced into play in Iraq.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, another Kurdish official, said a “marathon of negotiations” comes next. Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie, a member of the UIA, told CNN that the election was “like a national wedding.”

“We are heading towards formation of a national reconciliation government,” he said. “We are going to spare no time in including all communities — Sunnis, Shia, Arab and Kurds and Turkoman and Kurdo-Assyrians, Assyrians.

“This is going to be one of the most inclusive and certainly the most representative government in the history of Iraq,” he said.

[…]

Interim Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, a UIA member considered the favorite for prime minister, welcomed the announcement of Talabani’s presidential nomination.

“Why not?” Mahdi said. “I am very encouraged really to see such names.”

And what of the Sunnis? Bitter after their long run in power under Saddam, the Sunnis threatened boycotts based on whether Fallujah was assaulted or the security against the terrorists was not resolved. Any lessons learned about democracy?

Adnan Pachachi, a secular Sunni leader, told CNN he was “disappointed” that his party mustered only about 0.1 percent of the vote nationwide.

But he called the elections “a good thing” and said he doesn’t question their legitimacy.

[…]

There are concerns the Sunni Arab population — about 20 percent of Iraq’s estimated 25 million people — will look upon the results as illegitimate. Two influential Sunni groups, the Association of Muslim Scholars and Iraqi Islamic Party, did not participate in the elections.

But Pachachi said he was committed to ensuring that Sunnis are represented in the writing of the constitution.

“I have a feeling that many of the Sunni parties that boycotted the elections are having second thoughts now,” he said.

Trust me, we’ve rounded a major bend in Iraq, but it ain’t over yet. The newly-elected Iraqi National Assembly will be targeted by the terrorist scum in hopes of depriving the people of their wishes. If the people see the terrorists’ attacks as such, the terrorists are screwed.

Meanwhile, we must continue to provide security and promote the capabilities of the forces available to the resultant Iraqi government.

Each step forward is another brick in the shining city on the Arab hill that can help us in our fight against the Islamist bastards, another step in building an alternative to the radicalism spawned by the failures of the Arab governments and the radical aspects of Islamic societies. Each voice against our progress is a scream against the future safety of our children on our own shores.