Quote :

"Early voting results announced by Iraqi electoral officials today, with nearly two-thirds of the ballots counted, indicated that religious groups, particularly the main Shiite coalition, had taken a commanding lead. The secular coalition led by Ayad Allawi, the former prime minister, had won only meager support in crucial provinces where it had expected to do well, including Baghdad. The front-runner among Sunni Arab voters was a religious coalition whose leaders have advocated resistance to the American military and have demanded that President Bush set a timetable for withdrawing the American military from Iraq."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/19/international/middleeast/19cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1135054800&en=b0e5f6785bbe21ca&ei=5094&partner=homepage

sorry, iraq. Seriously, I'm sorry. Hopefully they'll be better than Saddam. Hey, at least it'll be a democratically elected theocracy... for now.

12/19/2005 10:44:49 PM

Anyone that held to the belief that the Shi'ites wouldn't be in control is delusional.

I was hoping that the secularists would get more votes though.

I'm thinking Iran part deux

12/19/2005 10:46:34 PM

no kidding, we took out a sort of secular tyrant and have replaced him with a religious tyrant... possibly... but at least they'll tell us to leave the country

then they'll send people to fly airplanes into our country

but hey, freedom is on the march!

12/19/2005 10:57:16 PM

well these arent the official results so I would still take them with a grain of salt

The UIA has been in a power for about a year and they have yet to turn it into a theocracy; Sistani is from the quietest tradition so I dont even see how most people get the idea that it could turn into another Iran.

Secondly they did not win as many seats this time as they did last time and the kurds are going to be the main power brokers when it comes to forming a coalition government.

12/19/2005 11:05:18 PM

Quote :

"Clear5: Sistani is from the quietest tradition so I dont even see how most people get the idea that it could turn into another Iran."

no no [no], you don't understand. DG and the other anti-war hippies have their Middle Eastern Studies degrees from Kellogg's (the cereal company, not the college at Oxford) and are now experts on the region and the religion.

They've also bought large quantities of Gamecat's Magic Crystal Balls to help with the prophesying.

You see this was all preordained and predicted by these brilliant academics years ago.

[Edited on December 19, 2005 at 11:20 PM. Reason : ---]

12/19/2005 11:19:35 PM

I don't intend to make anyone think I know anything about their religion. I'm only going on what I read. From what I understand, these people want a theocracy.

12/19/2005 11:23:35 PM

No I agree with you, I'm sure that's exactly what they all thought walking into the voting booth. "I'm not voting for a particular candidate or slate I trust or anything like that, I just want a theocracy!"

12/19/2005 11:27:52 PM

sorry, to clarify, "these people" refers to the politicians, not the citizens

however, it does appear that alot of the citizens want that as well.

12/19/2005 11:29:46 PM

^I guess thats why the recent mega survey by der spiegel found a whole 5% of the population supported a mainly religous government

12/19/2005 11:34:38 PM

58% of Shi'ites said that the US was right to invade Iraq. The vast majority of Kurds said so as well

It doesn't sound like they are heading towards a theocracy. More likely, they are headed towards civil war because they will never agree on how to split up the oil money.

12/19/2005 11:45:00 PM

Holy shi'ite!

12/20/2005 12:10:21 AM

It doesn't really matter if they vote on religious lines, so long as whoever gets elected abides by the constitution. I'm hoping we'll be around long enough to make sure that they do, at least for long enough to get people used to the idea.

12/20/2005 2:27:05 AM

My crystal balls? Dude, you're the one telling us what would have happened given certain circumstances. In logical debate, we call that opinion disguised as fact.

12/20/2005 3:38:27 AM