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What the heck is going on in Iraq


chicpad
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Here in the U.K. we had an election last Thursday the counts were complete by midday on the Friday and by the end of Friday we knew the result ( a hung parliament) exactly the same as Iraq and here we are by the following week a coalisation government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Iraq had their election in the first week of March and by mid May they still have not sorted things out and have still not completed the count. By this rate you can forget about a R.V. of the currency for at least another couple of years, in fact I would not mind betting that we will have the 2012 Olympics before it happens. Why does everything take such a long time to happen over there are they totally incapable of making any decisions????

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Here in the U.K. we had an election last Thursday the counts were complete by midday on the Friday and by the end of Friday we knew the result ( a hung parliament) exactly the same as Iraq and here we are by the following week a coalisation government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Iraq had their election in the first week of March and by mid May they still have not sorted things out and have still not completed the count. By this rate you can forget about a R.V. of the currency for at least another couple of years, in fact I would not mind betting that we will have the 2012 Olympics before it happens. Why does everything take such a long time to happen over there are they totally incapable of making any decisions????

In response I will quote what I have heard from several uninspiring people in my life "It is what it is"

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I congratulate you on a speedy election process. That is the way it should work, and you Brits should be proud. That being said, in Iraq, you have a party leader that can't admit defeat, and is unwilling to relinquish his power. The election was close, Maliki contested in the hopes of stealing the election. Same thing happened here in the US in 2000. Deplorable and childish in my opinion.

If you lose at something, admit it and be a gracious loser, no matter the game.

Some people love power more than anything, and can't stand to lose it.

The true character of a person is seen, when they have power, in how they use(or abuse) that power.

I am pretty sure your question was rhetorical, but if not, i hope this helped to answer it.

Cheers chicpad

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Here in the U.K. we had an election last Thursday the counts were complete by midday on the Friday and by the end of Friday we knew the result ( a hung parliament) exactly the same as Iraq and here we are by the following week a coalisation government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. Iraq had their election in the first week of March and by mid May they still have not sorted things out and have still not completed the count. By this rate you can forget about a R.V. of the currency for at least another couple of years, in fact I would not mind betting that we will have the 2012 Olympics before it happens. Why does everything take such a long time to happen over there are they totally incapable of making any decisions????

I totally agree with you, we still have a long ways to go before a RV :angry: I hope I am wrong but don't think I am :lol:

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Apparently they have a loop hole in their constitution the size of Dallas. Article 76 I thought was to give the winning bloc the right to form or at least the first attempt to form the government within a 30 day period. Then Maliki takes it to Federal court and they determine that the ability to combine the largest bloc (SOL & INA) will then be the bloc that has first right to form the government.

To me it would seem that by allowing 2 blocs to combine seats becoming the largest bloc is just nonsense. It just takes the will of the voters right out of the game. Why have a winner elected by the people if the politicians can circumvent the peoples vote. If party A comes in second and decides it wants to combine with party C because party B won then exactly does the will of the voter fall in line.

I think Maliki has set some bad precedence for the future of a representative democracy in Iraq with this move. When the will of the voters is just cast aside it will eventually lead to a disenfranchised population that will see that they have no control on who they want for their leaders because the politicians can play games to take their right of self determination away this will not serve Iraq well.

This move along with the support of a Federal court and the vote recount in Baghdad is what Maliki has used to buy time and twist arms and maintain power. Thus exposing him for what he is. Plus the US and the UN have said again and again they don't want to interfere with the will of the Iraqi's. It would appear to the Middle East that Iraq is the puppet of these two entities and in that culture that cannot be respected. So for the US or the UN to interfere it would have to be dire circumstances. If a new civil war was to break out or the violence by the weakened but still capable insurgency escalated to a point of out of control then indeed the US/UN would have to step in and stop it or lose whole situation. That isn't good.

But here is the crazy part that makes no sense to the West. While publicly they scream for the US/UN to leave privately they are afraid we will indeed leave. Kinda like saying leave my house you are not welcome here but please don't go to far. They need us. But they are living in a culture that demands they rebuke the influence of the Western powers. If it appears that the US is pulling the strings they cannot gain the respect or the trust of it's neighbor's. While they need our military, money, and guidance they are caught up in their own ancient cultural political games. Plus the US is what keeps Iran at bay. The other governments of the gulf region are more afraid of Iran than they are of Iraq and while under Sadaam they were protected from Iran because Iraq had a strong military and he was the lynch pin of Gulf security. Geographically Iraq sits between the Iranians and the rest of the Middle east and it was the blocking force to contain Iranian expansion. Remember the Iranians are Persian and Shiite and the rest of the Middle East is mostly Arab and Sunni. All of this combines to create a situation that is hard for the West to understand and grasp as we tend to consider politics in absolutes and without the influence of a religious factor. The Middle East is dominated by their religion which more often than not dominates the politics of the region which really complicates the process.

There is nothing easy about understanding Middle Eastern politics. It will drive a sober person to seriously consider drinking. These guys make me crazy just typing this dissertation trying to help explain your question. In fact my beer has gotten hot for all the time I have spent here coming up with this long winded explanation. But this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding the answer to your question. "What is going on in Iraq?" "Why does it take so long?" The answer is any thing but simple. The BS these people wade through is thousands of years deep. I haven't even mentioned the Kurds and that subject is as ancient as they come. But that's a story for another day.

I hope I was of assistance. But for now I need another beer. Wikipedia will help if you want more insight on Middle Eastern politics. Make sure you have a lot of ice before you start reading or your beer will get hot too. Cheers Mate!!

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I was in Iraq during the yea of 04. We got them through their first election and that was a start. They are getting a taste of Democracy for the first time and they like it. The government doesn't know what to do with it. The Shiite's and Sunni's have been at odds for thousands of years and it is in their nature. Bombs are going t go off and people are going to die long after we are gone. It's their culture. We need to pull out, give them some space and leave them on their own for a while. They will work out their own problems in their own way.

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