Grand Ayatollah Sistani, Iraq's Shiite Leader wants more representation

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in any upcoming elections.

http://www.iht.com/articles/540331.html

He's worried that the other parties will unite and form a large bloc that will hamper the smaller parties political groups. What role should the U.S. play in facilitating the participation of parties not aligned with their puppet Allawi? Will the deck be stacked against the Shiites, for example? Won't that force the Shiites to not participate any stacked election? That would mean no legitimacy for those 'elected', and a continuation of the violent opposition.

Is there any viable option to Allawi that our candidate could or should express favor for. Sure, it would be better if we kept our noses out of their affairs, but Bush's is well under the tent in the Allawi camp. We all know what a shill he is. What to do, short of total abandonment of the country we have so devastatingly disrupted?

Do we demand that the Shiites get full access and representation to the election process? `I know we'd like to say that it's not our problem, none of our concern, up to the Iraqis, but Bush has such a heavy hand with his installation of Allawi, who btw, has full access to the U.S. sponsored Iraq media, as well as reconstruction funds at his disposal.

Is there any way to reduce the power of Allawi, and if so, through the support of what group there?

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1. Quite honestly?

The party that would create an Iraq MOST like the one Americans would like to see would be the Iraqi Communist Party. Seriously.

Unfortunately, after being attacked by Saddam for years, the US has taken over the job of attacking the Communists (though there was a very brief respite until the Communists were basically shut out of the fledgling Iraqi government again last year). The Iraqi Communist party believes in multi-party government and free elections, btw. Not a Stalinist state by any means.

They are, other than what remains of the Baathist resistance, the most organized secular force still operating in Iraq. Unfortunately, there's probably only about 4 dozen of them left.

:shrug:

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2. I really appreciate your view here

I can't see how we can accept Allawi but I don't see what alternative party will oppose him effectively in any election. I think that if we are going to facilitate an election we need to find ways, or the U.N. should be brought in to find ways to level the field of the many parties there. There are like 10 major ones and countless others, including Chalabi's National Congress.

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3. Another possible group would be Iraq's trade unions

Although the official trade union group, IFTU, had been a Baathist puppet organization under Saddam, the once illegal Worker's Democratic Trade Union Movement has taken the IFTU back since the invasion.

Unfortunately, the US military shut down all trade unions and union offices shortly after the invasion (that's Job One for the US Military, you know...ask Smedley Butler).

I believe the 'new' IFTU has since reopened an office somewhere, but are still shut out of the government entirely, and experience constant harrassment from US allied forces. Proconsul Bremer's laws in the 'new Iraq' also prevent trade unions from working effectively (no surprise there!).

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4. Here are some of the parties in Iraq:

Iraqi National Congress (INC), co-founded by Ahmad Chalabi
Association of Muslim Clerics
Assyrian Democratic Movement
Iraqi Communist Party
Iraqi National Accord
Iraqi National Congress
Islamic Al-Da'wah Party
Kurdish Democratic Party
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK)
Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI)
Iraqi Islamic Party,
Iraqi Hezbollah,
Dawa, a Shiite party.

How will we get out of Iraq with a Bush puppet in the position to approve the establishment of permanent U.S. bases, indefinite, continuous U.S. military meddling, and the resulting casualties?