jibber

wow. i really think you should look into the matter before you go making generalizations about an entire nation. and i think i'd know a BIT more on the subject, seeing as how i grew up in the middle east. ok where to start. Yes iraq as a whole is muslim, but there are subtleties and differences within the religion that you obviously don't recognize. Saddam belonged to the sunni muslim sect, which constitutes about 16% of the population of iraq. that was the group that held most of the political power, and tended to opress and disriminate against the majority of the rest of the people, being the kurds (about 20% of the population) and the shiite muslims, making up the rest, about 2/3. now in the case of a democratic election right now, the winner would most likely be a shiite muslim, who after years and years of repression by the sunnis, would tend to be discriminative on their part to the minorities. also, shiite muslims are known for fundamentalist views, and ties with iran (a nation that underwent an extreme fundamentalist revolution in the late 70's to early 80's, but even then there are differences between shiites of iraq and iran, mainly stemming from the fact that iraqi's are of arab heritage, whereas iranians are of persian heritage). So, the US obviously fears a leader emmerging from the shiites (which would most likely be the case) because of possible fundamentalist rule. however, within the shiites there is a group of about 4000-8000 fighters. this group is known as the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. the SCIRI is made up of iraqi shiite exiles and prisonners of war, and have been fighting against the iraqi military (run by sadaam) in souther iraq. The US has just had a meeting with the brother of the leader of the SCIRI, which indicates that the two groups could perhaps work coorperatively in the future. maybe even a shiite from this group will emerge without fundametalist ideal and be supported by the iraqi people. i didn't say that this scenario was likely to happen soon, which is why i said the best option at this time was delay. iraq is not yet ready for its own democratic election, nor is it right to impose a foreign backed leader. so next time you write off my ideas, maybe pause for a bit and consider the fact that someone could know more of the subject than yourself.

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