Posted on 06/28/2005 5:27:10 AM PDT by OESY
...Since the election, coverage of the violence, as valid as it is, has once again obscured major developments. In political terms, Iraq followed the timeline we envisioned, achieving a string of concrete and unprecedented political successes: the drafting of an interim constitution in February 2004; the formation of a multi-ethnic interim government in June that year; followed by the early hand over of sovereignty the same month; culminating in the dramatic election in January this year.
But we also expected the insurgency to progressively dry up as Iraqis became politically empowered and democratic institutions took shape. This hasn't happened, at least not at the rate we had anticipated. And so, Iraqis find themselves in an awful paradox: vibrant democratic politics that gives them hope coexisting with a drumbeat of terrorist attacks that gives them fear....
The U.S. handed over sovereignty to a government that included six Sunnis. Feeling like they had too much to lose in Iraq's first election just six months later, the Sunni political leadership successfully called for a boycott. Thus no Sunnis were elected. But the Shiites -- who won convincingly -- did not want to overreach. They looked for ways to include unelected Sunnis and, after many false starts, ended up with Sunnis representing about one-fifth of the new government.
Some of this new momentum was lost when only two Sunnis were chosen for the 55-member committee to draft the permanent constitution. But soon the two sides reached a compromise that resulted in 15 additional Sunni seats, 10 adviser positions, and a commitment by the Shiites to approve the new constitution by consensus only. You would be hard-pressed to find another political system in the region where decisions are reached by consensus with minorities. Sunnis are increasingly advancing their agenda through politics rather than violence....
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
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