US Resistance to Direct Vote Galvanizes Iraq's Shiite Clerics: "The Shiite community, which was brutally persecuted by Saddam Hussein and his Sunni Muslim-dominated Baath Party, would likely benefit from swift direct elections because Shiites make up about 60% of Iraq's population and their religious parties are, at this point, the most organized political force in the country.

"But some Bush administration officials fear that if Shiite fundamentalists were to win at the polls, they would advance an anti-Western agenda with a theocratic bent reminiscent of Iran rather than build a relatively moderate democracy that protects the basic rights of all Iraqis, including women and minorities."

This article from the Los Angelos Times illustrates the main defect of the commondreams.org website: that it regurgitates without comment far too much mainstream corporate propaganda. Every sane observer knows that that the US intends to dominate Iraq indefinitely (or at least until the oil runs out) and that therefore real Iraqi democracy is out of the question, as far as the US is concerned. It could only occur if it was forced upon the US by the people of Iraq, ie if the insurgency defeated the US military and forced them to retreat from the country and somehow genuine elections were held in the country. The real issue to report upon is the tussle between the Bush Administration and its attempts to impose a client state and the efforts of the Shiites and other Iraqis to establish a democracy, but such a concept is virtually inconceivable for the corporate media.

US Resistance to Direct Vote Galvanizes Iraq's Shiite Clerics: "The Shiite community, which was brutally persecuted by Saddam Hussein and his Sunni Muslim-dominated Baath Party, would likely benefit from swift direct elections because Shiites make up about 60% of Iraq's population and their religious parties are, at this point, the most organized political force in the country.

"But some Bush administration officials fear that if Shiite fundamentalists were to win at the polls, they would advance an anti-Western agenda with a theocratic bent reminiscent of Iran rather than build a relatively moderate democracy that protects the basic rights of all Iraqis, including women and minorities."

This article from the Los Angelos Times illustrates the main defect of the commondreams.org website: that it regurgitates without comment far too much mainstream corporate propaganda. Every sane observer knows that that the US intends to dominate Iraq indefinitely (or at least until the oil runs out) and that therefore real Iraqi democracy is out of the question, as far as the US is concerned. It could only occur if it was forced upon the US by the people of Iraq, ie if the insurgency defeated the US military and forced them to retreat from the country and somehow genuine elections were held in the country. The real issue to report upon is the tussle between the Bush Administration and its attempts to impose a client state and the efforts of the Shiites and other Iraqis to establish a democracy, but such a concept is virtually inconceivable for the corporate media.