The Iraqi Election

"It's like a snake: The skin is soft, but the snake is poisonous. The American soldiers are the skin, but the American policy is still on the inside." - Mohammad Khuzai, a spokesman for Bashir Najafi, one of the four grand ayatollahs who make up the Shiite religious leadership in Najaf.

I think Mr. Khuzai's profound statement expressed the feelings of most people that protested the war, certainly mine.

more comments below...

Here's the article:

Iraq's Shiites plan humble rise to power

Sensing election victory, leadership urges decorum

By Doug Struck
Washington Post

"NAJAF, Iraq - The police chief, a former army colonel who still wears a uniform with eagles on its epaulets, sat in an official's office, flanked by men in dark suits, all awaiting an audience. Behind the desk, the official leaned back. She adjusted the black abaya that covered all but her face.

Bushra Zamili, the chief of the Najaf elections commission, is a symbol of change coming to Iraq. The 35-year-old Shiite Muslim, wearing religious dress, was the official to see on election day in Najaf.

As the ballots are counted from Sunday's nationwide balloting, Iraq's Shiites are poised to claim a hefty share of power. In Najaf, the Shiite-affiliated parties are confident they will oust the mayor, who was appointed to the job after arriving from Michigan with U.S. officials. Nationally, the whispered numbers collected from poll watchers hint at an impressive victory for the Shiite-backed lists.

This will be a stunning change for the Shiites, who suffered under past dictatorships, monarchies and empires and would never have seen a religiously dressed Shiite -- let alone a veiled woman like Zamili -- in a position of responsibility in Saddam Hussein's government.
But in Najaf, the symbolic capital of Shiism in Iraq, that change is being handled with political finesse. The word was spread in the mosques: no triumphalism, no revenge, no displays of smug ascendancy.

"We are not talking about competition between Sunni and Shia. No one will lose," Sadr Aldeen Kubbanchi instructed in his sermon Friday in this battered old city with one majestic jewel -- the gold-domed shrine of Ali. He preached to a balcony filled with black-shrouded women and to men below whose foreheads bore the marks of being touched to the ground in prayer five times each day.
'The Sunnis are our brothers'The Shiite leadership has dictated an inclusive message intended to reassure the Sunni Arab and Kurdish minorities, as well as the United States. Everyone must work together in the next government, they say. Already, there are private negotiations over how to bring the Sunnis into the political tent if the results show that voter intimidation by insurgents has left that group with disproportionately low representation.

"The Sunnis are our brothers," said Mohammad Khuzai, a spokesman for Bashir Najafi, one of the four grand ayatollahs who make up the Shiite religious leadership in Najaf. "We are not celebrating our victory over Sunnis. We are celebrating the end of tyranny."

In part, cooperation will be a political necessity. Although the Shiites are estimated to account for 60 percent of Iraq's population, their principal slate of candidates, called the United Iraqi Alliance, is not expected to win a majority in the 275-seat transitional National Assembly. Other currents tugged at the Shiite vote; interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, a Shiite, ran on a largely secular, Shiite-Sunni list but has significant support even here in Najaf. To win votes in the assembly, coalitions will be required."We don't need conflict between the Shia and the Sunni," said Asaad Taee, a mayoral candidate on the main Shiite list, representing the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. "We are an Iraqi list, not a religious list. We have been working for 20 years, at least, to defend all Iraqi people -- Kurds, Sunnis, Shiites, everyone. That won't change."

And a strong showing by the Shiite parties, which ran on a unified list, does not guarantee a unified voice once the next government forms. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's preeminent Shiite cleric, put together the United Iraqi Alliance list, which includes parties with sharply contrasting views. Those differences are likely to sharpen over hard issues such as the writing of a new constitution and, sooner or later, asking the U.S. military to leave.
Khuzai, the spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Najafi, said the Shiite leadership had decided that U.S. forces could stay in Iraq -- for now.

"There appear to be good relations" between the Shiites here and American soldiers, said Khuzai, sitting cross-legged on a mat in a room bare except for a frame containing Koranic verse. But, he added ominously, "there are hidden aspects. It's like a snake: The skin is soft, but the snake is poisonous. The American soldiers are the skin, but the American policy is still on the inside."
'A moderate way'The new constitution to be written by the transitional assembly also could prove divisive, embracing such issues as whether Iraq should adopt Islamic or secular laws.

"None of us believe that there should be a religious government," insisted Ibrahim Bahr Uloom, a top candidate on the Shiite list. "There is no feeling in this society for a religious government, at all. On the other hand, there is no way the society will accept a secular government. The difficulty is to find a way between them, a moderate way."

That attempt at compromise will be tested by the strong Shiite showing. In another part of Najaf, in Allawi's local campaign headquarters, a local party chief put the campaign in terms of secular vs. religious.

"We should separate religion from policy," said Abdel Waheed, bleary-eyed on the morning after the election. He chain-smoked under a poster of Allawi in the crowded office.

"If the people want Iraq to be developed and rise in every aspect of modern life, religion has to be separated from government," Waheed said. "We don't want Iraq to be an Islamic state."

He said the Shiite candidates would be overly influenced by the Shiite theocracy in Iran. "The Iranian people have an ambition to make Karbala and Najaf their own," he said of the two most revered Shiite cities in Iraq. "Iraq should be for Iraqis."

But as voters lined up in Najaf on Sunday, they insisted that a vote for the Shiite parties was not a vote for Iran.

"Iraqi Shiites are not the same as Iranian Shiites," said Salam Mustafa, 43, who owns a shop near the shrine of Ali. "You won't see Iranian influence. After this election, we expect the situation will be better for everyone."

© 2005 The Washington Post Company"


This article seems a bit optimistic regarding Shia-Sunni unity. The Shiites of Iraq have been persecuted for at least the last 25 years under Saddam Hussein's rule. Why would they be forgiving after living through that type of oppression? I hope they are able to find some sort of unity, but the historical rift between the two sects runs deeper than any fictitious nationalist pride. Iraq became its own entity only in 1932, the Shia-Sunni divide has existed for a millenium. The colonial borders that makeup Iraq have no real basis, as explified by the fact that the Kurds are broken up into several different countries. Plus, the only Shia dominated countries in the world are Iraq and Iran.

I put the articles in quotes, because in my mind, I'm preventing plagiarism somehow. Hey, I cited the source, I ain't taking credit for shit!