Iraq election

From Healing Iraq

The United Iraqi Coalition is almost frantic in its election campaigning. Their posters and banners are all over Baghdad which makes me wonder how it is in the south. Their slogans are scrawled on every wall in town, and of course you have the obligatory picture of Sistani stamped on every poster with the words: "vote for the choice of the Marji'iya.

The fatal mistake of boycotting the elections by Sunni Iraqis is going to make that easier. The Sunnis have been acting like spoiled unhappy children when things don't go their way. They start breaking up things and threaten to mess everything up. 'Either I play or I burn down the playground,' as we say here.

The threat of civil war and factional violence is a very real one. No matter what government results from elections, Sunnis would deem it illegitimate and the violence or the 'burning down of the playground' will continue. Two Shi'ite mosques have been attacked over the last week and a representative of Sistani was assassinated. Tribal Sheikhs from the south were kidnapped from a bus in Latifiya.