Posted on 12/11/2005 2:34:44 PM PST by chiller
FALLUJA/RAMADI Iraq (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein loyalists who violently opposed January elections have made an about-face as Thursday's polls near, urging fellow Sunni Arabs to vote and warning al Qaeda militants not to attack. In a move unthinkable in the bloody run-up to the last election, guerrillas in the western insurgent heartland of Anbar province say they are even prepared to protect voting stations from fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.
Graffiti calling for holy war is now hard to find.
Instead, election campaign posters dominate buildings in the rebel strongholds of Ramadi and nearby Falluja, where Sunnis staged a boycott or were too scared to vote last time around.
"We want to see a nationalist government that will have a balance of interests. So our Sunni brothers will be safe when they vote," said Falluja resident Ali Mahmoud, a former army officer and rocket specialist under Saddam's Baath party.
"Sunnis should vote to make political gains. We have sent leaflets telling al Qaeda that they will face us if they attack voters."
The shift is encouraging for Washington, which hopes to draw Sunni Arabs into peaceful politics in order to defuse the insurgency.
The Baathist warning to al Qaeda raises the possibility of a wider rift between secular Saddam loyalists and fundamentalist militants, who have been cooperating in their efforts to drive out U.S. forces.
But it is far too early to suggest any breakthroughs will ease insurgent violence that has killed thousands.
Some insurgent leaders appear to be setting conditions for Sunni voters, who will choose from among 231 political parties and coalitions for a parliament that will appoint the first full-term government in postwar Iraq.
In an amazing coincidence, CNNX actually set up the talking point for pulling defeat from the jaws of victory: they said that since most Americans think (according to some poll they took) we're losing Iraq, most Americans will ignore the Iraqi election because we lost because we're losing in Iraq (though the election proves we're winning the war on terror and that Iraq IS free). Liberal version of logic. Go figure.
Yep. But they're not gonna GET the power this time and they're forced to resort to pragmatism. That is a GOOD thing.
I thought Abu Abdullah was the Al Qaeda #3 in command.
Tipping point anyone? This election is gonna do it.
In Iraq, Signs of Political Evolution
**********************************
Thursday, December 8, 2005; Page A18
BAGHDAD, Dec. 7 -- Tucked into a bunker-like former headquarters of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party, a type of war room unfamiliar in this country buzzed with life Wednesday. Halfway through a 14-hour shift, campaign workers from the Iraqi Islamic Party, a Sunni Arab group that boycotted the country's previous elections in January, munched rice and kebabs, their faces lit by computer screens.
Across town, hundreds of black-clad followers of the radical Shiite cleric Moqtada Sadr -- who decried balloting 10 months ago as something imposed under American occupation -- beat their backs with chains and stomped across a large poster of former interim prime minister Ayad Allawi. Sadr's political wing has joined forces with the alliance of Shiite religious parties that leads Iraq's current government and opposes Allawi's secular movement.
*********************************
See link for the rest of the story......
*************************************
"It is like night and day from 10 months ago in terms of level of participation and political awareness," said a Canadian election specialist with the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, a group affiliated with the U.S. Democratic Party that is working to ease Iraq's transition to democracy. The institute, which has provided free campaign training to more than 100 Iraqi parties and describes its programs as nonpartisan, granted a reporter access to its employees and training sessions on the condition that no one on its staff be named.
If this keeps up, Democrats will be guarding polls so republicans can vote.
Yes.
They'll point to that so-called Senate bill that was passed and they will claim that it was this bill that created the plan that lead to the success.
Meanwhile, the plan was in place all along. Even for Fallujah.
Wonderful. I've got a huge lump in my throat.
See #87....and the DemonicRats actually should know how well things are going in IRAQ....guess only Joe Liberman is listening to one of their organizations.
What excellent news, Ernest. Thanks for the ping. I'm saying a prayer that things go well in Iraq this week.
Very good news indeed. Early voting starts tomorrow; let's pray for a successful week for the Iraqi people as they go about the business of rebuilding their nation.
Idon't think he is eligible.....having been a high level Baathists.....
In a future not far far away, a US soldier with his hands raised wanders towards the Red Chinese lines. Chinese soldier confronts him and says, "I thought Americans never surrender." The soldier replies, "I am not an American, I am a Democrat."
I really hate the liberal media, I do hate them.
Very lame.
You can bet your bipy on that one. The Iraqi across party/religious/ideological sects are quite serious about getting involved with the election at this point. No kidding ah.
With the many troubling issues that lay boiling at their feet with the constitution, that must be addressed, especially in some of the articles dealing with how the government operates, e.g. federalism, e.g. provincial powers verse central powers, they are taking everything quite seriously.
It all is going to hinge on no one (province) wants to be cut out of the oil reveneues that they now realize are going to be a future reality. They are sitting on the second largest proven oil reserves in the world that have hardly been dented.
And as many of us have observed, the primarily Sunni dominated provinces are those not in the oil sectors. The Sunni are not stupid. They understand fully, they are in a minority at this point. They understand that they must play carefull politics, give and take, appeal for equal representation, to not have the northern and southern provinces break away and leave them in poverty so to speak. In my opinion we shall see over the next few years a most likey constant struggle by those Sunnis in the oil barren provinces push more amendments to the constitution to be re-written in such a way that gives the Central government more power to overrule economic decisions within other provinces that would perhaps keep a less then equal distribution of the countries oil revenues from going through the capital. They are going to want a central bank that will be assured a piece of the action. And rightly so, IMHO, this is needed in Iraq. To much states rights this early in the game in their situation is not good. There is enough oil to rebuild the whole country if they go about it in the right way, and no one would lose.
So these folks are not dummies. And they know at this point the coalition wants out asp. So again, nothing is gained by supporting the insurgency anymore. Not at this point as far as I can see.
So if Abu is not on a camel out of there for easier pickings elsewhere, he sure as shit is thinking about packaging his bags for elsewhere. Problem is no one wants him. The Iranians don't want him, he is an Arab. The ME countries now all buying into the co-op to fight WOT, don't want him, he is a wanted man. I would say at this point Abu's balls are toast. And if this is so, and the Sunni can no longer support the insurgency............who knows......perhaps our exurberance may equate to fewer American lives being lost at this juncture in time. Just some thoughts.
ping
"Reuters actually posted this?
Inconceivable!"
I was thinking the same thing. Reuters??????
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.