Tuesday, February 01, 2005

Overblown

I'm surprised we haven't read more of this:

But many in the newly triumphant Shi'ite community were in no mood yesterday for magnanimity.

"We carried our father three hours to get him to the polls," said Muthana Jaffar al-Tamimi, 30, a grocery store clerk and art school graduate in Baghdad's middle-class Shi'ite neighborhood of Karada. The Sunni Arabs "could have made the process successful themselves," he said. "They could have gotten involved, but they didn't. We decided our destiny. They decided theirs." He added, "It's their problem."

Did anyone care if the Nazis participated in post-war German government? Did anyone care if the Afrikaneers participated in post-apartheid South African government? That would be no and no. I wouldn't lose too much sleep over the plight of the Sunnis. They'll participate in enough numbers to keep the Shiites honest...but no more.
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2 comments:

Bookfraud said...

hate to disagree, but...not every german was a nazi; not every sunni is a baathist. sunnis have ruled the area for hundreds of years, and if they don't have some participation, welcome to civil war. that's what most of the terrorists want -- they don't fear sunni non-participation, but that sunnis *will* participate with their 20% of the population and make iraq into a functioning, stable entity.

4:22 PM
Doug Fields said...

The Sunnis will have "some" participation, which is all that's needed. And true, not all Sunnis were Bathists, but a sizeable majority were...and they benefited from that status under Saddam's brutal regime.

In addition, the Shia have already pledged to include the Sunnis in the new government and in the formation of a new constitution. So far, so good.

4:42 PM

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