tdaxp

"The Iraqi Election Results Map," by Patrick Ruffini, Patrick Ruffini, http://www.patrickruffini.com/archives/2005/02/the_iraqi_elect.php, 15 February 2005.

Catholicgauze alerted me to this map

Visual proof of a competitive multi-party democracy in the middle of the Arab world. A three-party democracy in the middle of the Ummah.

Beautiful.

"Shi'ites exult over voting; Sunnis receive no sympathy," by Borzou Daragahi, Washington Times, http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050201-122034-4418r.htm, 2 February 2005.

We must build a free Iraq. We have to recognize that its enemies are found with the Sunni Arabs,and that the Sunni Arabs have attempted to subver the country by boycotting. They have attempted to make it illegitimate. We cannot let them recover from their error.

Sunni Arabs yesterday appeared shocked by the large turnout of Shi'ites and Kurds in Sunday's elections, with some anxiously looking for ways to bolster their representation in the new government that will emerge from them.

It looks like the Shia realize the danger

But many Shi'ites, triumphant after voting in high numbers in spite of terrorist threats, had a simple message for the Sunnis who stayed home: Tough luck.

Unlike some, they are not conflating an inability to vote with an attempt to destroy the vote

[The American diplomat said] Sunni turnout was better in cities like Baqouba, which have a mixed population of Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs, he said. He attributed the low turnout in mainly Sunni cities like Tikrit to "intimidation, supplemented by boycott calls," and the absence of any obvious Sunni party or leader.

The last paragraph is doubly important. First, it shows our wrongheaded attempt to draw attention away from Sunni rejectionism. Second, it shows how no viable Sunni leader emerged.

Iraq is a fantasy country. The borders never rejected feelings on the ground, and unlike South Africa there never emerged distinctly "Iraqi" people.

The Sunni Arabs are analogous to Yugoslav Serbs or Palestinians in the West Bank. They have launched aggressive terror wars and are a danger to democracy in the greater state. Parts of Yugoslavia are now under permanent U.N. occupation. The West Bank is literally being walled off from Israel. A similar solution in Iraq is both more secure and more just than continued efforts to appease an angry and violent minority.