Reply #10: Sharia law in Iraq has been unavoidable since March 19, 2003 [View All]

[htuttle]

There was one primary secular organization in Iraq before that date, and the Bush administration destroyed it.

The only way a Sharia-law-based government could have been avoided in Iraq is if events had run their course over time, and Hussein and his cohorts been toppled in a secular revolution/coup. That way, the middle institutions of secular power, the criminal justice system, the professional class,health care system, etc..., would have remained intact. THEN it would have been possible to transition to a secular democracy.

As it stands now, secular power in Iraq is all blown to dust. There are only one or two remaining power centers in Iraq, and they are religious in nature -- except for the Kurds in the newly founded, but not yet declared, Republic of Kurdistan.

One last point. The harder we push down on Iraqi and their religious institutions, the more militant their religious power structures will become. Right now, Sistani is far more benign than the US probably deserves. We can easily make the situation much, much worse if the US stays there much longer acting the way the Bush administration has been acting...