[lonewacko_dot_com]

It's nice what Pipes says and all, but one of the main points of this exercise was to win hearts and minds, right? Yet, here we have a bunch of academics placing the blame on the U.S., joined by IRNA and other Islamic outlets. So, if we want to win hearts and minds, giving the "other side" something on which to hang their hats - even if they're doing so falsely - is generally not a good idea, no?

[Remedy]

Just a prelude for….

Shiite Opposition Won’t Join US-imposed Government Another Shiite scholar spelled out conditions for the future government and constitution of Iraq, saying the ruler should be a Muslim and the laws in line with Islam.

Sheikh Mohammed Yacubi said Iraq's most influential Shiite seminary in the holy city of An-Najaf, known as the Hawza, has agreed on those principles and will lobby for them in talks to form an interim government.

"What's required is that the ruler should be a just Muslim, whether he is a member of the Hawza or not," Yacubi told a crowd of more than 10,000 worshippers at Baghdad's largest Shiite mosque.

"And he should not take any decision that contradicts holy law."

Major Shiite groups have thus far boycotted U.S.-sponsored meetings to lay the groundwork for the future Iraqi government.

[Risa]

>>here we have a bunch of academics placing the blame on the U.S., joined by IRNA and other Islamic outlets<<

Most people do not consider these academics to be 'scholars' in the true sense. And who listens seriously to the IRNA or any Islamist outlet for that matter? Had the Iraqis not destroyed their own cultural heritage--these pseudo-scholar and Muslim types would have found something else to pin on U.S.

The hearts and minds of the Iraqi people are extremely unstable and fickle, evident by the religious insanity whipped up so easily by all those cowardly clerics returning from exile. Winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people, while a noble goal, is nearly impossible to achieve, museum or no museum.

risa