Anti-Subjugator

Well, the preliminary results are now available, and the Iraqis have done, if not the right thing, at least a reasonable thing. They've marginalized Sadr and his goon squad, and given reasonably large clout to secular/non-bigotted parties.

In short, you have:

1. State of Law (Maliki) with 29%. This guy is moderate and more-or-less open to Sunnis.

2. Iraqi National Movement (Allawi) with 24%. This guy is definitely secular and open to Sunnis. This is who I was hoping would sweep the elections, and indeed, the Sunnis have been decent people and voted for this Shiite.

3. National Iraqi Alliance (Sadr and friends) with 21%. You can guess what I think of these pricks. That's right. They're pricks.

4. Kurdistani Alliance (you guessed it, Mr Kurd and the other Mr Kurd) with 16%. It's unfortunate that the Kurds are voting along racial lines, but it's not as bad as it used to be, with Kirkuk going to Allawi.

5. Also rans = 10% total.

Anyway, the end goal is something that looks similar to Australia/Taiwan. Two party system, both supporters of secular capitalist liberal democracy. Here's the combinations that are possible.

SOL + NIA (50%) - would see the horrible Shia bigots in power again.

SOL + INM (53%) - would see exactly what we want, with one problem - the opposition are Islamists so it's secular vs Islam. Much better to have these two be the main moderate parties, and in opposition, so every election alternates between one or the other moderate.

SOL + Kurds + rest = 54% - this is what I would suggest for this election.

INM + Kurds + rest = 49% - touch and go whether you can get 50% out of this.


So, with SOL + Kurds + some of the rest means you don't have the worse of the scumbags (e.g. Etihad Islamic Union and Kurdistan Islamic Union) getting to do their religiously bigotted best.

And that's going to be a pretty decent government, by Iraqi standards.

Anyway, thankyou Iraq for being reasonable people. We can live with people like you, and I hope that we can be NATO allies one day. Australia isn't currently a member, but we should be at some point.

And to those who asked "why Iraq?", here's part of your answer. With these different races/religious sects, the Iraqis have to vote for a moderate government because nothing else is really workable. And these people are the least religiously bigotted, and most intelligent Arabs on the planet. These people we should be able to work with, if we do our best, and if we don't make the poor Americans do all the work, or have an expectation that this is an American responsibility. It is everyone else who should be trying hard to build bridges. The Americans broke down the brick wall preventing us from cooperating with the Iraqi people. It's now up to us to build bridges.

The rest of the Middle East just nuke. Don't waste your time trying to make these non-Iraq Arabs adopt secular capitalist liberal democracy. When the population of Iraq expands, they can expand into the other areas that are now free of Muslim religious bigots. And if that's not an effective response to 9/11, what is? Oh, and also, to the pea-brain Democrats, that's also the answer to "what did Iraq have to do with 9/11?". We got to save one Arab Muslim country from the nukes you were ready to fire on 9/11. It took 9 years - 10 by the time your troops are out of the area - then bombs away. Retaliate on your timetable, and according to your plan, not the terrorists'.

Onya Iraq!!!