Iran wins big in Iraq's elections
"We knew ever since the beginning [of the Iraq
war] that the Americans would become trapped in a quagmire..."
"We knew ever since the beginning [of the Iraq war] that the Americans would become trapped in a quagmire ... Iraq has become a turning point in the history of the Middle East. If the Americans had succeeded in subjugating Iraq, our region would have suffered once again from colonialism, but if Iraq becomes a democratic country that can stand on its own feet, the Americans will face the greatest loss. In such an eventuality, Iran and other regional states will be able to play an important role in world issues since they provide a huge share of the world's energy needs. We see now that the United States has been defeated."
Such a statement has to have come out of Iran, and without a doubt President George W Bush would attribute it to that "odd guy", as he referred to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad in a recent PBS TV interview.
------------
But, as with just about anything else these days concerning the Middle East, Bush would be dead wrong, as would be many others who have misread Iran at this momentous juncture in the region. The excerpts are from a speech at Friday prayers at Tehran University, made by someone whom the Western world has come to regard as the consummate "pragmatic conservative" (whatever that might mean) of Iranian politics, former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
There is one thing for which Rafsanjani is famous - he seldom mixes illusions with reality. And the reality is that the Middle East's political compass shifted last week.
------------
All indications are that in the Shi'ite provinces such as Najaf, Karbala, Qadisiyah, Maysan, Diwaniya, Amara, Nasiriyah and Samawa, anywhere between 70% to 90% of the votes may have gone to the UIA, and that even in the mixed Babil, Diyala and Baghdad provinces the UIA may well secure the most number of seats. Some reports indicate the UIA as getting probably as high as 70% of the votes in Babil - a magnificent performance in a mixed Shi'ite-Sunni province.
Naysayers and Neo-cons denied anything other than a tame government well-populated by folks handing flowers to our troops would result from the elections. It's becoming clear that even removing the results from 1,000 challenges -- will not mean a jot in that direction. Folks with street experience in fighting colonialism predicted exactly this outcome. Those of us who prefer secular government to fundamentalist theism, are stuck in the Cassandra corner, once again.
Just as the united front of gangsters, CIA and the Shah in the 1950's led directly to Khomeini in 1979, American politicians are dedicating another Middle Eastern land -- eventually -- to shari'a. It may take another two years or ten or thirty; but, that's the strength of any fatalist religion. A couple of generations is always worth sacrificing. Bush's grandchildren will probably end up in the Texas National Guard -- if it's exempt from fighting abroad, that is -- avoiding another foreign war predicated in arrogance and ignorance.
Posted: Sun - December 25, 2005 at 09:50 PM