Replies

I hold by what I have written in a few comments on Iraqi related postings on success. But surely I do not in any way deviate from my long held opinion, where many here and elsewhere had given up on a potential success in Iraq.
The Maliki government controlled for the most part by the two major Shia parties in Iraq, SCIRI and the Islamic Dawa Party continue to keep a tight rein on openess to a point where the Sunni and Kurdish parties have a real say. This has been voiced many times at this site by folks such as jmc1969.
And I for one agree on points he made a long time ago. The very nature of their voting system set up and sanctified by the UN, has put them into a bad position.
Iraqi cannot vote for an individual for Prime Minister or President.
They can only vote for a party. So with the Shia majority being the case, it takes a real leap of faith to vote for a party that is not under the recommendations of say ones local iman.
This is going to continue to be a real problem. I was hoping earlier on, a few months back that we where going to see some real visible actions by the new party Allawi and like minded individuals had formed.
To date, I only see the continued, what appears to be business as usual approach by the Maliki government with some spurts of enthusiasim on occasions to allow their military/police and MNF forces to go after various insurgent groups outside the main al Qaeda and Saddamist organizations.
In this I am rather dissapointed. But it is really great to see people like mentioned in this article along with a guy like John Burns finally start to see what a lot of us have seen for the past year plus developing.
I still think Operation Matatdor and the combined operations in the Mosual/Tel Affar region where the straw that broke al Qaeda's back and started to show a lot of Iraqi that indeed it was possible to see terrorist literally pushed out of a given previously controlled area.
The dominoe effect obviously is now increasing. Many Iraqi now must see a hope materialize in front of their faces, that better times can be had if they have the faith to cooperate real time with the IG and Coalition forces.
Light industry and retailing starting to flourish in cities in the north like Mosul/Irbil for instance will be proof positive that a new Iraqi can be developed by all if they get off their asses and participate in ridding their country of the tens of thousands of goons who only want to blow kids up while playing soccer. Fear is being replaced by hope and hatred for those in Islam that have no god other then Satan in their hearts.
Iraq as I predicted a year and a half back shall eventually become the jewel of the ME. A place for all muslims to wonder and reflect on. Bashar, Ahmadinejah, and others really do shudder at what may come to past in the days ahead.