U.S. Is Haunted by Initial Plan for Iraq Voting

[housewolf]

U.S. Is Haunted by Initial Plan for Iraq Voting

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The fundamental decision set up one nationwide vote for a new national assembly, rather than elections by districts and provinces. With a violent insurgency spreading through the Sunni Arab areas of the country, it now looks as if fewer Sunnis will vote, distorting the balance of the legislature and casting doubt on whether the election will be seen as legitimate.

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Thus an election intended to bring Iraq together and quell the insurgency could produce the opposite outcome, in part because of the way it has been organized.

In a speech Thursday at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington, Brent Scowcroft, the former national security adviser of President George H. W. Bush and an increasingly vocal critic of the war, warned of the danger of the election worsening the conflict. "The Iraqi elections, rather than turning out to be a promising turning point, have the great potential for deepening the conflict," he said.

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But some officials said Mr. Bremer's advisers were now blaming Ms. Perelli for the decision. One said that he had attended a meeting with Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser and secretary of state-designate, at which she simply shrugged off the decision and said it had been made by the United Nations.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/international/middleeast/09diplo.html?pagewanted=print&position=


Some background information to this article re: a luncheon meeting between Scowcroft & Brzezinski to inaugurate the launch of a suite of new foreign policy programs at the New America Foundation, includes a transcript of the meeting & video link

http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/000259.html