Powerhouse GOP firm working to undermine Iraqi PM

CNN.Com ^ | August 23, 2007 | Ed Henry

[Austin Willard Wright]

That’s hypocritical

[Wuli]

“Actually, it isn’t an idol to those folks when Hamas wins. They are hypcritical.”

There is a problem when there has never been elections and in the case of the Palestinian “territories” Condi was personally warned by the Israelis and Abbas that if Palestinian elections went ahead on the U.S. State Department’s artificial timetable that Hamas would win. She refused to listen, Hamas won and now we are where we are there.

In the case of Iraq, regardless of the difficulties - the military situation on the ground, the insurgents and the militias - there were almost as many possible difficulties for the coalition effort in not having the elections (not being able to create genuine “Iraqi” government military and national police to work with the coalition) in not having the elections for the Constitutional assembly as there were in the fact that many militias and “political” factions were linked.

[Wuli]

No its not “hypocritical”.

There needs to be a foundation - organizing time - for the most evenhanded results - within the conditions available. I was not opposed to the elections in the Palestinian territories, nor simply on the question that Hamas might win. My opposition at the time, like Israel’s and Abbas was that some more time was needed for groups other than Hamas to organize and make their case for support. Hamas, because of how it is structured, had a jump, an advantage in local organization. When understood, it was a given, that Hamas was better positioned to get its supporters out to vote for it. But, as we knew then and have seen now, that support was not as deep as the initial vote demonstrated and as the violence between Hamas and the other groups have played out it is clear that Hamas was and is not as popular in the more populace west bank as it is in smaller Gaza. Had there been more time to organize before the elections this would have been more apparent in the election results. This both Abbas and the Israelis knew, and warned us about. It is not a question of not having elections because you won’t like the results, but of looking at the conditions on the ground and asking if the populace is as prepared as conditions can be for having the elections. In the case of the Palestinian territories the conditions were not, and could have, better prepared before the elections were held.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Yeah, but who’s funding Allawi so that he can hire this high-priced outfit to help bring down al Maliki?