# Leading Sunni party to boycott Iraqi election **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 23, 2010, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083 "2010-02-23T04:44:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Yersenia\_Pestis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e495f1/32.png) [@Yersenia\_Pestis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yersenia_Pestis)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/21 "2010-02-26T23:04:55Z")
Update: sounds like a major Sunni political figure has reversed the boycott and now it seems the Shiite-dominated gov is trying to calm things down: > **[Iraq to reinstate 20,000 former Hussein army officers - CNN.com](http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/02/26/iraq.army.officers/index.html?hpt=Sbin)** > > Days ahead of national elections, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced plans to rehire 20,000 former Iraqi army officers who served under former leader Saddam Hussein. ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/22 "2010-02-27T04:19:00Z")
> [@Yersenia\_Pestis](#): > > Update: sounds like a major Sunni political figure has reversed the boycott and now it seems the Shiite-dominated gov is trying to calm things down: > > [Iraq to reinstate 20,000 former Hussein army officers - CNN.com](http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/02/26/iraq.army.officers/index.html?hpt=Sbin) The pessimists have been proven wrong in less than 24 hours. A record. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2010, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/23 "2010-02-27T04:28:45Z")
> [@Yersenia\_Pestis](#): > > Update: sounds like a major Sunni political figure has reversed the boycott and now it seems the Shiite-dominated gov is trying to calm things down: > > [Iraq to reinstate 20,000 former Hussein army officers - CNN.com](http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/02/26/iraq.army.officers/index.html?hpt=Sbin) > [@](#): > > (CNN) – Days ahead of national elections, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has announced plans to rehire 20,000 former Iraqi army officers who served under former leader Saddam Hussein. > > The officers will be reinstated into the new Iraqi army, said an official with the ministry of defense. > > The move garnered criticism as being a political ploy and was surprising in some circles after al-Maliki’s campaign rhetoric against Hussein’s Baath Party. > > Several candidates who planned to stand in the upcoming election have been banned by the country’s Accountability and Justice Commission because of evidence of them “glorifying” the Baath Party. Encouraging sign, I guess, political ploy or not. But, that story does **not** say the National Dialogue Front has reversed its boycott; nor that the banning of any of the allegedly Baathist candidates has been reversed. ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/24 "2010-02-28T21:54:10Z")
It doesn’t say they reversed any boycott, it says they’re letting some former Iraqi army officers back into the Iraqi army. They accepted tens of thousands back into the army during the US surrender negotiations a couple of years ago and as soon as the US agreed a timetable to leave they kicked them all out again. Like the article says it’s just a cynical electioneering move. And it doesn’t make any difference if they do reverse the boycott. No matter what happens the Sunnis will remain a powerless minority and Shiite Iranian exile parties will hold all the power in the Arab part of Iraq. Maliki will make a deal with some tiny Sunni party that will take the lowest bribe after the election and then he’ll be able to say see, we’re inclusive, our governing coalition includes Sunnis. ---
**Author:** ![Yersenia\_Pestis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e495f1/32.png) [@Yersenia\_Pestis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yersenia_Pestis)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2010, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/25 "2010-02-28T23:48:43Z")
> [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > It doesn’t say they reversed any boycott, it says they’re letting some former Iraqi army officers back into the Iraqi army. They accepted tens of thousands back into the army during the US surrender negotiations a couple of years ago and as soon as the US agreed a timetable to leave they kicked them all out again. Like the article says it’s just a cynical electioneering move. > > And it doesn’t make any difference if they do reverse the boycott. No matter what happens the Sunnis will remain a powerless minority and Shiite Iranian exile parties will hold all the power in the Arab part of Iraq. Maliki will make a deal with some tiny Sunni party that will take the lowest bribe after the election and then he’ll be able to say see, we’re inclusive, our governing coalition includes Sunnis. Whatever works for them, as long we’re able to withdraw ALL of our troops/personnel and keep wasting money there. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/26 "2010-03-09T16:37:59Z")
[Post-election analysis from Robert Dreyfuss:](http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/539045/hopeful_signs_in_iraq) > [@](#): > > It’s also too early to evaluate the impact of the pre-election purge by Iran’s friends in Iraq, including Ahmed Chalabi, who prevented hundreds of secular, nationalist, and anti-Iranian candidates from running for office. The clear intent of that effort was to force Maliki to adopt a fierce, anti-Baathist (and sectarian, anti-Sunni) stance, which partly succeeded, and to scare Shiite voters into stampeding into the arms of the Shiite religious bloc. Apparently, their effort failed, and if anything it spurred Sunni and pro-secular voters to go to the polls in greater numbers. But it remains to be seen if the pro-Iranian bloc, the INA, was routed, and if the secular parties, such as Allawi’s and the party led by Interior Minister Bolani, another secular Shiite leader, did well in Iraq’s Shiite heartland. In the provincial elections, in 2009, there were some major surprises, including a stunning victory by a secular, moderate ex-Baathist in Karbala, the very heart of Iraq’s Shiite religious electorate. > > The bottom line, of course, is that despite the hopeful straws in the wind, big chunks of Iraq are still unwilling to accept the results if it doesn’t go their way. The battle line dividing Arabs and Kurds is still red hot, from the far northwest to Diyala province. The armed militias, including the Kurds’ pesh merga, the Shiite-led Badr Brigade, Muqtada al-Sadr’s ragtag force, and Iranian-backed Special Groups such as the League of the Righteous, are still capable of flexing their muscle. And among the Sunnis, the remnants of the Sons of Iraq, the ex-Awakening movement, are sullen and bitter, and it’s not at all impossible that a new insurgency could develop (supported, no doubt, by Iraq’s Arab neighbors), if enough Sunnis decide to resist the election results. While Iraqi politicians wheel and deal, expect them to rally forces on the street, too. > > One good sign: the United States insists that its withdrawal, to 50,000 (from 96,000) by August, to be followed by a complete pullout by the end of 2011, is still on track. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/27 "2010-03-09T17:20:38Z")
So despite the gloom and doom scenarios, it turns out that the Sunnis participated in large numbers, secular leaders were elected, and even a secular Ba’athist was elected in a Shiite area. But don’t worry - it’s not impossible that a new insurgency will develop! And there are still lots of problems! This is the ‘bottom line’, apparently. Why do I get the feeling that the writer would have been happier to see things go to hell? None of these results are a real surprise if you’d read Iraqi opinion polling. Iran is not popular in Iraq. Nor are the theocrats. Most Iraqis are more than willing to work together regardless of sectarian differences. Of course there are still problems. There will always be problems. Every country has problems. The U.S.'s political climate isn’t particularly rosy either, is it? The question is whether the problems portend gloom and doom, or whether on balance Iraq looks to be transitioning to a stable, functioning democracy. Looks like the latter to me. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/28 "2010-03-09T18:36:39Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > Why do I get the feeling that the writer would have been happier to see things go to hell? That perception says more about you than about him. It is plain and obvious Dreyfuss wants the Coalition troops **out** of Iraq, and things going to Hell would make that problematic. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/29 "2010-03-09T18:47:55Z")
The fact remains is that the election’s results were even better than the optimists hoped for, yet the article still presented the ‘bottom line - of course’ conclusion that things are very bad, and discussed the timetable for removal of U.S. troops as ‘one good sign’. No, there were MANY good signs. The tone of the article was basically, “Iraq is going to hell, but good news! We’re still getting out.” The fact that a secular, moderate ex-Baathist was elected in a religious Shiite community is amazing, isn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/30 "2010-03-09T18:53:06Z")
Found that pony yet, **Sam**? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/31 "2010-03-10T16:25:30Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > The fact remains is that the election’s results were even better than the optimists hoped for, yet the article still presented the ‘bottom line - of course’ conclusion that things are very bad, and discussed the timetable for removal of U.S. troops as ‘one good sign’. No, there were MANY good signs. There were also many bombings and assassinations. Take it all around, weigh the good and bad, and the Iraqi national handbasket is still stuck in Hell, or at least Purgatory. But, why do you even raise the issue? What, are you still looking for signs that invading Iraq in the first place was a **good** idea? I would have thought even you would have given up on that a long time ago. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/32 "2010-03-10T21:29:22Z")
Iraq, now mostly ethnically cleansed and partitioned and with the killings thereby substantially reduced, now has some hope of becoming Bosnia in other ways as well someday. Great. Perhaps that’s the best that can happen now, but even so, it’s just sick to claim it as retroactive vindication for having loosed the dogs of war on them in the first place. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2010, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/33 "2010-03-10T22:35:32Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Iraq, now mostly ethnically cleansed and partitioned and with the killings thereby substantially reduced, now has some hope of becoming Bosnia in other ways as well someday. Great. > > Perhaps that’s the best that can happen now, but even so, it’s just sick to claim it as retroactive vindication for having loosed the dogs of war on them in the first place. Gone are the good old days when Iraq kept the peace in the region. Saddam’s only flaw was that he occasionally passed gas in public. Never mind that the United States was a permanent police force babysitting a murderous dictator and our presence in Saudi Arabia was the driving force behind 9/11. That’s different…. somehow. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2010, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/34 "2010-03-11T14:03:53Z")
Your point, sir? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/35 "2010-03-31T19:23:18Z")
[Robert Dreyfuss writes in _The Nation:_](http://www.thenation.com/blogs/dreyfuss/546302/tehran_s_coup_in_iraq) > [@](#): > > **Tehran’s Coup in Iraq?** > > posted by Robert Dreyfuss on 03/28/2010 @ 9:47pm > Iran is losing no time in assembling a pro-Tehran government in Iraq, and in so doing Tehran may push the Sunni minority in Iraq into violent rebellion. Already, there are reports from Iraq – from Iraqi political insiders – that former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi who led a nationalist, anti-Iranian coalition of secular Sunni and Shiite voters, may opt to boycott the upcoming new national assembly if he isn’t given the right to form a government. > > “We expect that there will be calls for a boycott of the parliament and for civil disobedience,” according to Aiham Alsammarae, an ally of Allawi’s. A violent reaction by Allawi’s supporters can’t be ruled out, he said, from voters who demand that Allawi be given the first crack at putting together a government. In the March 7 election, Allawi’s Iraqi Nationalist Movement won 91 seats, edging out the State of Law party of Prime Minister Maliki, who won 89 seats. > > But top Iraqi politicians representing Shiite sectarian politicians and Kurdish separatists filed dutifully to Iran yesterday for meetings on the formation of a new Iraqi government despite Allawi’s win. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/36 "2010-03-31T19:52:14Z")
I have a hard time believing that Tehran could gain any kind of control over the Iraqi political process. Iran is not popular in Iraq. Opinion polls show wide distrust of Iran among all sectors of the Iraqi population. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/37 "2010-03-31T20:10:24Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > I have a hard time believing that Tehran could gain any kind of control over the Iraqi political process. Iran is not popular in Iraq. Opinion polls show wide distrust of Iran among all sectors of the Iraqi population. Nevertheless (same article): > [@](#): > > President Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, visited Tehran this weekend for meetings with President Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader. Talabani was accompanied by Adel Abdel Mahdi, a leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq (ISCI)and Iraq’s vice president, one of the leaders of the pro-Iranian Shiite religious bloc, the Iraqi National Alliance (INA). In parallel, leaders of Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki’s State of Law party traveled to Iran to meet with Muqtada al-Sadr. Sadr and Abdel Mahdi are two key members of the INA, and behind the scenes Iran is knocking heads together to make sure that Maliki, the INA, and Talabani form a ruling alliance, according to Iraqi sources interviewed from Iraq and Jordan. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/38 "2010-03-31T20:35:18Z")
The fact that they meet is no more evidence that Iran is taking over than is the fact that American politicians and regulators meet with their Canadian and Mexican counterparts. Iran is Iraq’s neighbor. They have a need to maintain constant communications and negotiations. That’s no surprise. What’s more questionable is whether such meetings will translate into any kind of control over the Iraqi government by Tehran. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/39 "2010-03-31T20:58:17Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > The fact that they meet is no more evidence that Iran is taking over than is the fact that American politicians and regulators meet with their Canadian and Mexican counterparts. > > Iran is Iraq’s neighbor. They have a need to maintain constant communications and negotiations. That’s no surprise. What’s more questionable is whether such meetings will translate into any kind of control over the Iraqi government by Tehran. :dubious: If, during the Cold War, representatives of the U.S.-backed factions in a Third World country had met in Washington, DC, to discuss plans for putting together a government after a closely contested and still-disputed election with Communists on the other side, that would indicate a whole lot more than that they regarded Washington as a safe and neutral place to meet. It would, in fact, all by itself, be fair grounds for viewing whatever government ultimately emerged as a U.S. puppet. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2010, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083/40 "2010-03-31T21:01:25Z")
> [@Curtis LeMay](#): > > Typical pessimist, defeatist nonsense. The pessimists said the Great Depression would cause a fascist or communist revolution in America, that hawkish policies would cause a nuclear World War 3, and that overpopulation would cause the collapse of society by 2000. Plus the killer bees. Don’t forget the killer bees. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leading-sunni-party-to-boycott-iraqi-election/530083.md?page=3)