The Finger
posted in General |THE FINGER
On January 30th, the people of Iraq gave Bin Laden and Zarqawi the finger –not the middle finger – the index finger with the tip stained with purple indelible ink. They voted. Nine million of them, risking life and limb – some for the first time in their lives. In the long run, the actual outcome of the election may be of less importance than the fact that a free and open election took place in an Arab country. George Bush rolled the dice on the 1/30 election, and won big – much to the chagrin of the naysayers like John “the waffler” Kerry, California's Senator Worthless, and the Sage of Chappaquiddick, Ted Kennedy. With so many parties and candidates involved, it no doubt will take weeks and months for the elction results to jell down into a mangeable entity. And Zarqawi's mindless raghead thugs will do their best to sow discontent thru unrelenting terrorism. But when the Iraqi people get a taste of freedom, I think they will start to put the finger on the “bad guys” so that either the US troops or the Iraqi Security folks can end their tenure on this earth and let them enjoy the great beauty of death.
Looking ahead, the worst possible thing we can do is to set a schedule for troop withdrawal. Maybe our planners have a date or will settle on one. That is OK with me. But the most stupid thing we can do is to announce such a date or specify a number of troops publicly. That's the kind of script that Zarqawi or Bin Laden would write.
The Shiites and Kurds will relish their newborn governmental prominence in Iraq. The Sunnis can either boycott or sign on. It seems to me they are not really in a position to play hardball. My guess is that the Shiites and Kurds will go out of their way to be accommodating – up to a point. After that, the resentment of the last 50-100 years may take over. If so, it won't be pretty.