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Ummmmm...excuse me, but...

You have not been paying adequate attention to the actual situation vis-a-vis the Shi'a population in Iraq. To begin with, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, the guy who is recognized as the Most Learned of the Learned in Shi'a Islam, is a VERY strong proponent of the complete separation of religion and state. While there are some Shi'ite adherents running around damaging liquor stores, they are largely supported by the Iranian Shi'ites...who, as it turns out, don't have any senior Shi'ite leaders in their government...at least not as the Shi'a reckon senior leaders to be.

You are also not taking into account the disparity between Arabs and Persians, which is a big player.

You are not mentioning that the first fatwa that Ayatollah Sistani issued after being released from house arrest was to tell the Shi'ite faithful not to interfere with Coalition forces.

The Shi'a cleric you mention as being killed in Karbala was actually in a room with the man who was the actual target of the assassins...collateral damage, so to speak. He was not "sent to their mosque in Karbala" by any Coalition forces. He was, however, allowed to return from exile by the Coalition. While it would have been better if he had lived, I am not so certain that he had the Coalition's best interests at heart to begin with.

The Shi'ites are most definitely NOT "running everything". The Kurds are doing substantial running of things in the north. The Sunnis are working in the central part of the country, and the Shi'ites are in the south.

The Shi'ites are NOT "killing people who cooperate with us in any way." Where are you getting your information from, anyway, turninproud?

Yes, you do have to understand Islam to know what is going on. You also have to understand the history and present of the Arabs and Persians in the region to understand those influences on the current situation, too. You have to understand the regional and geopolitical realities at play.

I don't think we are going to have any Mogadishu-style actions in Iraq. For one thing, our forces are going to have the equipment and personnel necessary to prevent that kind of thing from happening. This is not going to be a Clinton-repeat...the Clinton administration had more to do with the Mogadishu incident than any branch of Islam did.

Iraq's Shi'ites are not what we are more accustomed to dealing with in Iran...and the Iranian Shi'ite power crowd are deeply, deeply worried and frightened. Their government is in danger of being tossed out the window without the Coalition so much as raising its little finger. They are surrounded by two infant democracies (Afghanistan and Iraq), and are facing a general strike scheduled for July 7. They are in deep doo-doo, and will be in much deeper doo-doo if Grand Ayatollah Sistani issues a fatwa calling for the Shi'a faithful everywhere to withdraw themselves from government.

We certainly do live in interesting times!

UN Approves Resolution to Lift Iraq Sanctions 14-0

another Reuters article - Evelyn Leopold

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to end 13-year-old sanctions on Iraq (news - web sites) and gave the United States and Britain extraordinary powers to run the country and its lucrative oil industry.

Despite misgivings by many council members, the 14-0 vote was a victory for the Bush administration, which made some last-minute concessions that opened the door to an independent, albeit limited U.N. role and the possibility of U.N. weapons inspectors returning to post-war Iraq.

The only opposition came from Syria, Iraq's neighbor and the sole Arab member of the 15-nation Security Council. Syria left its seat empty and did not cast a vote.

"The lifting of sanctions marks a momentous event for the people of Iraq," U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte told the council after the vote. "It is time for the Iraqi people to benefit from their natural resources."

And France, Germany, China, Russia and others who had opposed the U.S.-led war that ousted Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s government all voted "yes" but said the resolution was less than perfect.

"The war that we did not want, and the majority of the council did not want, has taken place," Germany's U.N. ambassador, Gunter Pleuger, told reporters. "

"We cannot undo history. We are now in a situation where we have to take action for the sake of the Iraqi people," Pleuger said.

Britain, a staunch U.S. supporter, made clear that unlike Washington, it wanted the return of U.N. arms inspectors.

Without U.N. action to lift the sanctions the United States would have been in a legal no man's land, with many firms unwilling to engage in trade with Iraq.

OIL FLOWS TO RESUME

Some 8.3 million barrels of Iraqi oil stored at the Turkish port of Ceyhan can now be exported. "The oil is ready to flow. The tanks are full," one council diplomat said. "I think you will find it will move quite quickly."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said he would name a special representative for Iraq shortly. The United States has signaled it prefers Sergio Vieira de Mello, currently the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"Whatever differences there have been in the recent past, we now have a new basis on which to work. And we must all work very hard, keeping the interests of Iraqis at the forefront of all our efforts," Annan told the Security Council.

The final compromise in the seven-page resolution was an agreement by Washington for a Security Council review within 12 months on the implementation of the resolution. But the measure does not need to be renewed and stays in effect until an internationally recognized Iraqi government is established.

French Ambassador Jean-Marc de la Sabliere said the resolution, while not "perfect," provided "a credible framework within which the international community will be able to lend support for the Iraqi people."

The U.N. sanctions were imposed after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait. But after Saddam's fall, the United States argued there was no reason to continue the trade and financial embargoes.

The resolution would give the United States and Britain broad powers to run Iraq and sell its oil to fund reconstruction. It would also protect Iraq against lawsuits or attachments of its oil revenues until a permanent Iraqi government is established.