Iraqi elections believed to have worsened divisions, report says

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - Iraq's political process has sharpened the country's sectarian divisions, polarized relations between its ethnic and religious groups, and weakened its sense of national identity, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.

In spite of a sharp increase in Sunni-Shiite violence, however, attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces are still the primary source of bloodshed in Iraq, the report found. It was the latest in a series of recent grim assessments of conditions in Iraq.

But the report was unusual in its sweep, relying on a series of other government studies, some of them previously unpublicized, to touch on issues from violence and politics to electricity production. Published on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the GAO report was downbeat in its conclusions - underscoring how Iraq's deteriorating security situation threatens the Bush administration's goal of a stable and democratic regime in Baghdad.

"Despite coalition efforts and the efforts of the newly formed Iraqi government, insurgents continue to demonstrate the ability to recruit new fighters, supply themselves, and attack coalition security forces," the report says. "The deteriorating conditions threaten continued progress in U.S. and other international efforts to assist Iraq in the political and economic areas."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15494904.htm

[Rose Siding]

1. Even Dating Is Perilous In Polarized Baghdad

snip>
For decades, marriages between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq were as ordinary as the daily call to prayer. But the sectarian warfare gripping the country has created a powerful barrier to Sunni-Shiite romances.

Married couples have filed for divorce rather than face the scorn of their neighbors. Fiances have split up as a result of death threats. And, increasingly, young single Iraqis have concluded that it is simply easier to stick to their own kind when it comes to love and family.

In a country where intermarriage was long considered the glue that held a fragile multi-ethnic society together, the romantic segregation of Sunnis and Shiites is more than just a reflection of the ever more hate-filled chasm between the two groups. It is also a grim foreboding of the future.

"Everyone is just taking sides to prepare for a big civil war," said Adnan Abdul Kareem Enad, manager of Sot al-Jamayaa, a radio station that has aired tales of star-crossed Sunni and Shiite lovers. "You can see the polarization of Iraq in the tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in marriage and dating."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/11/AR2006091101044.html

[Pirate Smile]

2. Iraqi elections believed to have worsened divisions, report says

Iraqi elections believed to have worsened divisions, report says

By Drew Brown
McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Iraq's political process has sharpened the country's sectarian divisions, polarized relations between its ethnic and religious groups, and weakened its sense of national identity, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.

In spite of a sharp increase in Sunni-Shiite violence, however, attacks on U.S.-led coalition forces are still the primary source of bloodshed in Iraq, the report found. It was the latest in a series of recent grim assessments of conditions in Iraq.

But the report was unusual in its sweep, relying on a series of other government studies, some of them previously unpublicized, to touch on issues from violence and politics to electricity production. Published on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the GAO report was downbeat in its conclusions - underscoring how Iraq's deteriorating security situation threatens the Bush administration's goal of a stable and democratic regime in Baghdad.

"Despite coalition efforts and the efforts of the newly formed Iraqi government, insurgents continue to demonstrate the ability to recruit new fighters, supply themselves, and attack coalition security forces," the report says. "The deteriorating conditions threaten continued progress in U.S. and other international efforts to assist Iraq in the political and economic areas."

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/15494904.htm


The Report included the following questions to be answered:


"The GAO said Congress must ask several questions as it considers what to do next. Among them:

-What political, economic and security conditions must be achieved before the United States can draw down and withdraw military forces from Iraq?

-Why have security conditions continued to worsen even as Iraq has met political milestones, increased the number of trained and equipped forces, and increasingly assumed the lead for security?

-If existing U.S. political, economic, and security measures are not reducing violence in Iraq, what additional measures, if any, will the administration propose for stemming the violence?

The report, citing the Pentagon, said that enemy attacks against coalition and Iraqi forces increased by 23 percent from 2004 to 2005 and that the number of attacks from January to July 2006 were 57 percent higher than during the same period in 2005. "

[eleny]

3. Can I hate them for their freedoms yet?

[LynnTheDem]

4. Let's see... BEFORE the Iraqi "elections" what was posted...

The Iraqi Constitution: A Referendum for Disaster
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/election/2005/1013disaster.htm

2000 Americans dead...for an ISLAMIC STATE of repressed women in IRAQ.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=5059338

"Unmaking Iraq, the Constitutional Process Gone Awry,"

The Iraqi constitution as written will push that country toward full-scale civil war, a report from a nonprofit organization warns. Melissa Block talks with Robert Malley, director of the International Crisis Group's Middle East program.
http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3703

"It may well be more of a prelude to civil war than a step forward," Anthony H. Cordesman said in an analysis for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Bush administration endorsed Iraq's proposed new constitution yesterday, but analysts warned that some provisions can be interpreted to undermine everything from the distribution of political power to a secular judiciary, from women's rights to fair distribution of oil revenue.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/24/AR2005082402217_pf.html

There are, however, significant doubts about the religious nature of the new constitution...

"It is written by Islamists for Islamists"

Zainab and her friend Zahra, 37, are both deeply apprehensive about the effect the constitution will have on women's rights. Since "liberation" by US-led forces they have seen the growth in the power of Muslim clerics and the diminishing power of choice.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article318609.ece

The Iraqi constitution's downside for women
http://www.juancole.com/2005/09/iraqi-constitutions-downside-for-women.html

Iraqi Women May Lose Basic Rights Under New Constitution
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0723-06.htm

Iraq's Draft Constitution Is Said to Deepen Divide...will likely trigger civil war...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/26/AR2005092601442.html

UN issues warning over Iraq constitution

There are fears that Iraq's draft Constitution, due to go a referendum next week, could trigger the break up of the country and even spark a bloody civil war.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2005/s1473209.htm

Americans Die for Sharia (ISLAMIC STATE) in Iraq

It's so Abdul the Iraqi can have six wives. It's so women can be forced to wear the abaya, alcohol can be banned, and sharia law – Muslim religious beliefs as interpreted by a council of mullahs and "grand ayatollahs" – can become the law of the land. As one of the Shi'ite clerics' representatives put it the other day:

"We don't want to see equality between men and women because according to Islamic law, men should have double of women. This is written in the Quran and according to God."
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=4774

Exactly the OPPOSITE of what bush spews daily...and EXACTLY what all the EXPERTS warned would happen before bush's war of aggression.

BUSH'S F*CK-UP. Americans dead and dying for an IRANIAN-STYLE ISLAMIC STATE in Iraq.

TOLD YA, stupid MFing rightwingnuts. Again.

Purple fingers! Purple fingers!

[IndianaGreen]

6. That's quite a list you have posted, LynnTheDem

and they illustrate why demanding milestones from the Iraqis is counter-productive. The best thing we can do for Iraq is to leave that country at once.

:(

[bamacrat]

5. Well, we did what we said we would I guess.

We gave them "democracy", or atleast as we define it. Aint it great.

[Lindacooks]

7. Gee, I guess those 'purple fingers of celebration' were a bit

premature, huh?

Who would have guessed?

:sarcasm:

[Phredicles]

8. Their elections have worsened divisions? Why, we HAVE given

them our type of democracy!

This must be that "victory" we've been waiting for. Can we please get the fuck out of there now?

[magellan]

9. Is it any wonder, considering how BushCo have polarized THIS country?

It has entirely to do with how they've mishandled things from the get-go. Allowing fanatical religious factions to take power and carve Iraq up into little fiefdoms while the CPA and interim governments were busily engaged in corruption and malfeasance on a grand scale only served to further undermine any chance at a real unity government. The bozos in BushCo's administration divided Iraq the same way they divided the US. We're just not to the all out war part yet.