These people are demonstrating that they aren't ready for democracy, and in spite of all the "feel-good" rhetoric, it comes as no surprise. The best we can hope for is to create the conditions that lead to the beginnings of democracy -- with a fist in a velvet glove.
When you're dealing with a violent mobocracy, compromise doesn't work. It's like trying to reason with a rabid skunk.
As far as ticking off Muslims that aren't angry at us, wait five minutes, and they'll find another excuse. We can't spend the rest of the century tiptoeing through the tulips of Islamic insanity.
Now, where are those microwave weapons? Sadr's followers need to be lightly toasted.
I couldn't agree more.
Well, it at least shows that people like me who supported a three-state solution from the start were right. The Kurds in Kurdistan could easily be responsible democratic allies. The other two nations of Shia and Sunni control could fight each other all they wanted until they decided it was stupid to do so anymore.