[Allegra]

Your take on current events?

The Sadrists are making a lot of noise and their deranged leader is encouraging them from his hidey-hole in Iran.

However, the majority of the people don't want that brand of leadership.

What a lot of people forget is that Iraq was largely secular under Saddam Hussein. Women are not required to cover up, can vote and hold public office (and they do), alcohol is legal and liquor stores, bars and dance clubs are not uncommon in the big cities.

In my own opinion, the best-case scenario would be Allawi assuming the PM position. He is a secular Shia and western-friendly. He won a very close national election last March and has already shown that he has the ability to govern when he was the provisional leader from '04 to '05.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Thanks for the reply, it’s always good to get the straght dope.

[AdmSmith]

al-Sistani is pushing behind the scene for a settlement between Allawi and Maliki to share power. I hope that Allawi will be PM in two weeks time, but Obama is promoting Maliki as PM.

[odds]

>>>”In my own opinion, the best-case scenario would be Allawi assuming the PM position. He is a secular Shia and western-friendly.”

I agree w/you on Allawi. But he’d better have some damn good bodyguards or chances are high that he’ll be killed.

In my view, Iraq & muslim countries like Iraq would need thousands of genuine & active secularists (Shia, Sunni, Arab or Kurd in Iraq’s case for instance), and support for these secuarlists from the West, to avoid becoming Islamist states. In which case, civil war might be unavoidable.