[blam]

"If it is a democracy, why are they allowed to make the rules?"

Shias or not, dummies, you lost the war!!

[jimkress]

As Powell or Rumsfield put it, "we are not going to work with the Iraqi people to put into place a government which offers thr people: one person, one vote, one time. It will be a representative state in which there are regular transfers of power from one group to another via the ballot box."

[TheConservator]

Dr al-Khafji said that no political alliances should be formed by Shia groups unless it was with Islamic groups. Islam must dictate all policy-making, he added.

That ain't democracy, idiot.

[Mister Magoo]

Unfortunately, we didn't advertise ourselves as conquerors, which makes the job more delicate. After WWII, there was no question that we were occupying Germany as a victorious power. With Iraq, we are coming as a "liberator." Consequently, we cannot immediately and swiftly supress rebellion and dissent. Ironically, the very group we need to run the regime, the educated Sunni elite, was co-opted by Saddam and his thugs.

[RightWhale]

why are they allowed to make the rules?

Bwahahahaha

And: an angry Muslimist? Imagine that.

[beckett]

Did The Independent really call Rumsfeld the "Secretary of State?"

Bozos

[easonc52]

Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of State

Hard to imagine how anyone can make supposedly credible statements about an individual they don't even know what position they hold.

Last I looked, Rummy has to do with the defense department. :)

[Arpege92]

You would think that everything this country has been put through with one dictator making all of the rules all of the time, that this kind of power should not be held to one person. Let all of the people vote in an Iraqi who will work for them and not them working for him.

[TalBlack]

These people aren't even ashamed that THEY didn't have the manhood to fight for their own freedom. They step right up like the ingrates they are and DEMAND things from their liberators! Of course we won't slap them down, we're too sensitive for that sort of hairy-chested behavior. Whatever...

[SuziQ]

"I thought the Americans said they wanted a democracy in Iraq," said Kassem al-Sa'adi, a 41-year-old merchant. "If it is a democracy, why are they allowed to make the rules?"

Someone needs to splain exactly what 'democracy' means. It doesn't just mean "one man, one vote, one time" as Newt Gingrich put it so succintly at the AEI panel discussion earlier this week. It means a Constitution that allows freedom of worship (missing in every Islamic run govt. on the planet!)regular unimpeded elections, and freedom to criticize the govt. without fear of threats or physical harm to yourself or your family. It does not mean trading a secular dictatorship for a sectarian one, a la Iran!

[RLK]

In a land full of nuts, one brand of nut will want to run the country. Democracy will allow them to do it through the vote.

[American Soldier]

Most of the people are used to the idea that one tribe is always and top and everybody else has to be that tribe's bitch. As soon as we make it clear there will be no Sunni or Shia dominated Iraq, I think a lot of folks on both sides will be willing to forget about the power games and just get on with their lives.

As it stands, I'd wager that a great number (if not most) of the Shias see this as their golden opportunity to nail the Sunnis. I don't think they care whether their government is "Iranian-style" or anything else -- this is payback.

Also, besides the exiles, most of them really have no clue what democracy means or why its beneficial. Even the dumbest East Asians I know can look at Japan or Taiwan and kind of "get it." But there is absolutely no example for the Arabs. It is not at all irrational for them to suppose that a theocracy might improve their lot. It's ignorant yes, but not irrational.

[Nick Danger]

I don't believe this reporter is being straight with people. He's just trying to cause trouble.

The cleric's view is widely shared by Iraq's Shia majority which is clamouring for the occupying forces to be removed.

How does he know what "Iraq's Shia majority" thinks? He's been to one frigging mosque, and heard the only guy with a pulpit call for this. Last week, a million Shia pilgrims showed up in Karbala, and the Mullahs tried the same thing there. 3,000 people shouted what the Mullahs wanted shouted. The other 997,000 shined them on.

The millions of Shias who gathered this week in the holy city of Karbala served as a warning to the US that it must find some way of accommodating the clerics.

The Hell it did. The Shias didn't just "gather," and the Mullahs had nothing to do with why they were there. It's a traditional pilgrimage that occurs on that day, and this is the first year since Saddam took over they've been allowed to do it. So a million showed up. But it had nothing to do with Mullahs, and it had nothing to do with wanting an Islamic state. To suggest that this is some "warning to the US" is more wishful thinking from the Quagmire Salesmen in the press.

[fightu4it]

There will truely be some interesting days ahead. It is obvious that the concept of seperation of church and state is not exactly well ingrained in Iraq.

I think we know what would happen if we went around Iraq locking up recalcitrant clerics. Some sort of sanctions must be available to a new government to deal with that problem when it arises. I'm just not smart enough to figure out what form the sanctions would take to be successful.

[Dec31,1999]

It's time to come clean with the term "democracy", which has been misused to mean "representative republic" for a long time.

Democracy is akin to two wolves and one sheep deciding what's to be had for dinner.

A representative republic, on the other hand, represents the people as a whole, while protecting MINORITY poulations, which is EXACTLY what Iraq, with all its divers populations desperately needs.

[Amerigomag]

Poor little Shi'as. Maybe they should take of arms and attack the 3rd ID.

[Imagine]

The need a constitution that protects the rights of the minorities -- to practice whatever religion they want or NOT to practice a religion. The only way to do that is keep religion out of government. Regretably, these people will kill you if you don't practice their religion. Either Iraq will become peaceful and free or we'll be back in 10 years with Jeb!

[Centurion2000]

Donald Rumsfeld, the US Secretary of State, will have won plaudits from his zealous friends by declaring that an "Iranian-style" Islamic government "is not going to happen" in Iraq.

Rumsfeld as Secretary of State would be on par with using sledgehammers to kill mosquitoes.

Of course his rejection of the Islamic state out of hand is something I'd have done too.

[Broward Lion]

Shiia radicals may die of a fatal disease..Bullet in the brain.

[Jael]

Isn't this group the minority anyway?

[Semper Paratus]

So What. Anger is the default state for shias'.