And so it begins...
Mood:  not sure
Topic: New gov'ts ain't easy
"...forming Iraq's first democratically elected coalition government is turning out to be a laborious process."

We knew it wasn't going to be a happy cake walk in establishing a new Iraqi government and the the issues are beginning.

(Chicago Trib.)

"Talks aimed at forging a coalition government faltered Wednesday over Kurdish demands for more land and concerns that the dominant Shiite alliance seeks to establish an Islamic state, delaying the planned first meeting of Iraq's new parliament.

The snag in negotiations between Shiite and Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq came as clashes and two car bombings in Baghdad killed at least 14 Iraqi soldiers and police officers -- the latest in a relentless wave of violence since elections Jan. 30."

The hot point was always going to be the issue of Iraq becoming an Islamic state and thus by proxy be a nother Iran. Myself, I cannot see how Iraq wont be some kind of Islamic state as most everybody that lives there is, well, Islamic. We would LIKE to see a church and state separated government but reality is rerlaity. Moslims don't see their world outside of their religion as Islam is part of everything they think, believe and do so to them I think it makes little sense to not have some kind of Islamic government. There must be a way to make this work...

"But forming Iraq's first democratically elected coalition government is turning out to be a laborious process.

Shiite and Kurdish leaders, Iraq's new political powers, failed to reach agreement after two days of negotiations in the northern city of Irbil, with the clergy-backed candidate for prime minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, leaving with only half the deal he needed.

The Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, which has 140 seats in the 275-member National Assembly, hopes to win backing from the 75 seats held by Kurdish political parties so t can muster the required two-thirds majority for post top posts in the new government."

Not the end of the world by any means as there is no way that they will all get exactly what they want. As long as they keep talking and work it out it still can work out, no? The worry in Iraq for me is that they go a few rounds then Civil war. In some ways, what with the insurgency obviously not going anywhere anytime soon they are almost already there.

As positive as I want to feel about the election and the fact that the Iraqi people seem not to want Allawi around I can't help but remind myself what the insurgents are fighting against. They want an Islamic state and they want to fight and kill us and anyone that appear to be going along with our program. Remember this, the insurgents, Al Queada and Co. are not fighting against 'freedom' and they don't hate us for being us. They hate us for being there, for interfering in Muslim lands and they don't see themselves as terrorists as we see them. They are fighting a full fledged war and have been since the late 1990's. We seem to refuse to either accept or acknoledge this notion which is why this mess will continue in and on and on until we either wake up and get out of there or else finally suffer defeat.

They wish to bleed us out just as they did to the Russians in Afghanistan in the 1980s. So far, they are right on trakc. They are patient and they believe are stupid Iraq invasion was nothing short of a gift from God now that they have a direct battlefield to fight us on and by proxy the Iraqis joing the Police force to oppose them.

This Lebanoon thing is a ray of hope. The possibility of somekind of peace happening between Palestine and Israel is a ray of hope. But is it really enough to cease this war?