Friday, October 14, 2005

Attaqs in Iraq

The Baghdad offices of the largest Sunni Arab political party (the Iraqi Islamic Party) were attacked by insurgents today (as were the homes of some of its supporters), in retaliation for the party's acceptance of the proposed Iraqi constitution.

I suppose one could look at this as evidence of the power that those who dislike the proposed constitution still have in the Sunni Arab community (i.e. the Iraqi Islamic Party does not command enough loyalty among the Sunni Arabs as a whole to put a stop to the insurgency by supporting the constitution), or as evidence of how evil and anti-democracy the insurgents are (and hopefully, how that will translate into the insurgents losing some of their popular support within the Sunni community), depending on what in Iraq you wish to emphasize. So the question becomes whether this portends "good Sunnis" standing up to (and shutting down) the insurgency, or that the insurgency is too strong for the constitution to stem it. While I tend to doubt that the insurgency will go away any time soon, I confess that I am have no idea in which direction the Iraqi Islamic Party's endorsement of the constitution, or the subsequent attacks on its members and offices will push things; to the better, or to the worse. So I think I will refrain on offering comments or speculation on the subject until I know more, particularly how the actual vote on the constitution goes.


That is all.

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