What is being said about the upcoming Iraqi Elecitons

The following is a collections of thoughts from current news articles on the upcoming Iraqi election. Most of the articles paint a very bleak picture and not one that would seem to validate a monumental event which will turn the country one that is stable as is being intimated by the Republicans. It is one more pipe dream, or con game by the Republicans. The tenor of the majority of the stories are little is going to change in the best case scenario, and in the worst case…a full blown civil war, with the US caught in the middle. The best we can hope for is that the newly elected Iraqi government demands that we leave.

"We need to put a wholly Iraqi face on this election," said Capt. James Turner, a troop commander in the division's 33rd Cavalry Regiment.

(snip)

"How do you give a group of people freedom when they don't understand what freedom is?" Turner asked. "Is it my responsibility to teach them what freedom is? I just don't know."
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/13374062.htm

"In the aftermath of the elections, and with the growth that I see in the Iraq security forces, we can begin to reduce the size of the U.S. forces and change the mission more to one of supporting Iraqi forces," the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, told the Arabic press last week.

Khalilzad also said the U.S. government hoped that Iraq's first permanent democratic parliament would be a representative body in which the majority Shiite Muslims and minority Sunni Muslims and Kurds could iron out their differences, erode popular support for rogue militias and Sunni insurgency groups, and unify the country
http://www.aina.org/news/2005129211830.htm

BAGHDAD, Dec. 9 -- Shiite and Sunni Muslim preachers in Baghdad's mosques exhorted followers Friday to vote for their respective sects' blocs in next Thursday's fractious national elections, saying that checking the right ballot box was a religious duty.
The linkage of religion and politics underscored the intensity of competition for seats in Iraq's first permanent government since the fall of Saddam Hussein. It also highlighted the surge of religious-based politics in Iraq, which was one of the Arab world's most secular countries during the first decades of Hussein's rule.

Iraq's parliamentary elections will result in the country's first full-term, four-year government. Leaders emerging from Thursday's vote will oversee completion of a new constitution that could carve up Iraq's oil revenue; assumption of power from the U.S. military as the country's dominant security force; and a decision on splitting Iraq into two, three or more potentially highly independent, faction-based regions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/09/AR2005120901817.html

The Minneapolis Star Tribune seems to have the best coverage.

How involved are the Americans in the election: Our government officials have been told they’re not allowed to openly support a candidate. But Allawi has been a favorite of the Americans and I can tell you from my recent trip to the region, Allawi is awash in money. I don’t believe it’s coming directly from the U.S. government, but I suspect that the CIA is telling its contacts that 'we can’t give money to this guy and we would appreciate it if you would.’
http://www.startribune.com/stories/722/5771429.html

Some people in the Bush administration wanted this to end with a friendly government in Baghdad that would welcome or tolerate long-term U.S. military bases. It's clear they're not going to get that.

The best they can hope for now is a weak parliamentary government, with a strong Islamist tinge to it that might have some people in it who are U.S. clients and will listen to some kind of special pleadings for U.S. interests in matters of oil and construction contracts.

The worst-case scenario is much more frightening.Under most scenarios, the insurgency goes on, perhaps for 10 more years. If the Americans aren't very careful about how they leave, we could end up with a hot civil war that could turn into a regional war. If it is an all-out war between Shia and Sunni you could have Iran coming in on one side and Saudi Arabia on the other. You have guys involved here who have already pioneered oil pipeline sabotage as a tool of guerrilla war. So that scenario would put 20 percent of the world's petroleum production at risk of being taken off the market.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/722/5771424.html

But over time, if the new leaders can put together a government that seems legitimate and is more effective, if they don't squabble, if they can get the electricity on, if more and more Sunnis believe that they can achieve some of their goals through the political process, this will undermine support for the insurgency and in the long run will make a difference. The outcome will not be a Jeffersonian democracy on the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates any time soon, but it will mean an improvement over Saddam and gradual normalization. At best, we should expect a weak central government, continuing decentralization of power and authority, and plenty of trouble still ahead. So the idea that just because of a good election, we're going to be able to withdraw next year, is not realistic.

In the best scenario, we can start to draw forces down after the election, and then move forces out of the cities, a few at a time. We are already doing this. If Iraqis are dealing with the situation, Iraq will be out of the headlines, and people will move on to other issues. The realistic goal has to be as much stability as possible and tamping the insurgency down to the level of a nuisance instead of a crisis. This could take five-even ten years.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/722/5771427-2.html

"It was a political mistake to boycott the previous elections because you cannot change any process, negatively or positively, without participating," al-Azami, 39, said in the barber shop he operates in Baghdad's heavily Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah.

"We used to say that we should not take part in the elections until the occupiers leave," he added, referring to the Americans and their international partners. "What if the occupiers stayed here for 10 years? Will I lose my political right for 10 years?"
(snip)
Sunni leaders hope that a big turnout will give their community enough political muscle to push through changes in the new constitution, including provisions for a federal state, and to pressure the Americans to accept a timetable for the departure of foreign forces.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/special_packages/iraq/13372865.htm

The former CIA agent author of the book that the movie "Syriana"(sp) was based on had some interesting thoughts regarding the elections. He stated that he felt that after the elections things would fall into major violence in Iraq. He said that when it became undeniably clear to the Sunni that they would not have as much power, wealth, or influence, that all out war would occur.

are not going to see the government they have promised us, much less what the took us to war (latest excuse)for in Iraq.

They have realized a while back that they were used & abused. Now they need to put a happy face on it for their re-election efforts. These slimey b@st@rds can't seem to grasp that all but a small percentage of voters now see them as lying bafoons who have lied to us, killed our military (and some even understand the costs to the Iraqi people), humiliated us, depleted our treasury, and have made us less safe. In short, the people recognize that the emperor wears no clothes. Let these slimey b@st@rds go down in flaming defeat at the polls. Let them be held accountable at The Hague.