However much the Sunni Arabs of Iraq deserve to be on the receiving end of a bloodbath at the hands of the Shias and Kurds they have so long oppressed, the pictures will still look bad on CNN or Al-Jazeera. It remains imperative for each group's religious rights to be respected after we leave.

I agree with Bart. However, I am resigned to the fact that no matter how successful the Iraqi government is at moderating these forces, the usual suspects (the MSN, the Euros, the Dems, the extreme left-right bloggsphere...) will be up to their usual revisionist, debating gymnastics. First, the will warn of a forthcoming genocide (ignoring, of course, previous ones). Second, they will scout the country for any incident of intra-Iraqi violence (led by the agitators themselves). Third, they will settle for the odd soccer brawl, declaring the experiment a failure, and lecture the rest of us about having broken Saddam's united Iraq...So, Bart, no matter what happens, it will make it to CNN anyway.

Bart:

Why? If you just crush them quickly and present the world with a fait accompli no one minds what you did.

oj,

There will be war crimes trials because it was done by people friendly to the US. Those trials will be on TV all over the world. The talking heads in the US will be bemoaning our action or inaction for decades. Just look at the BS that Arik Sharon has had to put up with from the world media over Sabra and Shatila. Just look at what Pinochet had to put up with because he killed a few thousand Communist terrorists in Chile 30 years ago. Some goofy Spanish judge will be trying to have Bush arrested for the next half century.

Pinochet governed Chile for decades afterwards. Sharon is the Prime Minister of our closest ally despite his war crimes. Your point becomes increasingly obscure.

Pinochet nearly ended up in a Spanish jail and there are never-ending efforts to 'bring him to justice.' Sharon is libelled all over the world and has been threatened with arrest in Europe. Israel spends millions defending him. If he were a private citizen he would never be able to leave Israel's borders because of the reality of extradition treaties between the US and Europe. Pinochet nearly was extradited from Britain to Spain and he was small potatoes. What would happen to Sharon if he were retired from office, and decided to visit the US? My bet is that a European judge would issue a warrant and it would be a simple matter to find some bozo in robes in the US to enforce it, and Sharon might end up dying in a Spanish jail cell.

That is the future Bush would have to look forward to were he to do what you suggest. That is perhaps what he will face anyway. The same Texas district attorney who brought the bogus case against DeLay would love to enforce a Spanish or Belgian writ against Bush.

Of course, Sistani sees no reason to delay the elections. He knows they are meaningless.

If President Bush, Ambassador Negroponte, Ayatollah Sistani, and interim prime minister Ayad Allawi all say the elections should be on January 30... then it will take a hell of a lot more car bombings to force a postponement.

There will be more car bombings, but I think the election will go ahead as scheduled.

Bart:

Sharon is in power and Pinochet home in bed.

Harry:

Meaningful, you just don't like the results.

Bush will be out of office in 2009. Does he really want or need to be facing a blizzard of arrest warrants from judges all over the world?

The Iraqi elections will be meaningful ONLY if they lead to actual governing. If they're a pitstop on the way to civil war, then they're meaningless.

Bart:

What future US President would allow an ex-President to be arrested for the consequences of past US foreign policy ?
That just ain't gonna happen.

Michael:

The election of Abraham Lincoln was meaningless?

Bart:

Who cares? They can't do more than indict and they'll indict him regardless of what he does.

oj,

Follow the steps. Baltazar Garzon in Spain indicts Bush, they ship the indictment over to Texas where that Earle guy gets a hold of it. He then has Bush arrested, and jailed. He holds an extradition hearing in front of his chosen judge and Bush is in a Spanish jail before you can say 'Arroz con Pollo.'

Michael,

President Gore. President Kerry. President Hildebeest. President Hagel. Any of these traitors and quislings and vermin who infest our political system and who want to sell us out to the UN and the Euroscum at the earliest opportunity. Need I continue?

Bart:

Ronnie Earle (or any other substitute) would never serve those papers. The Justice Dept. (and Congress) would quash them faster than Earle could blink, and if he kept trying, he would be removed by the Texas Democratic Party. Can you think of a better way to disgrace the party than something like this? It is the stuff of novels, not real life.

Ronnie Earle would serve them to the cheers of the MSM and the Hollywood crowd.

The Justice Department would squash them? Do you remember the Clinton Administration? We had a Marxist, lesbian, alcoholic, genetic freak as AG for 8 years who, inter alia, immolated dozens of children in Waco because they worshipped differently from most Americans, and who shipped a 6 year old boy to a prison camp masquerading as a country. Don't you think she/it would be falling all over her/itself to comply with Judge Garzon and ship Bush to a Spanish hoosegow at the earliest opportunity?

Congress has no power to quash an arrest warrant.

Disgrace the party? They gave a seat of honor to Michael Moore. They let the anti-White, Jew-baiter Al Sharpton speak in primetime. They took millions from a sleazy currency speculator in their quest to defeat Bush. A party that does this is impossible to disgrace. There is no level to which they will not sink.

When do the black helicopters land?

When Lon Horiuchi shoots your wife, kid and dog, don't come crying to me.

I am such a moderate. I love this blog.

I'm pro-Horiuchi.

Meaningless, in the context of Iraqi governance, because the Shia have not intention of a national government, Orrin.

They've been on the bottom, and now they intend to be on the top.

I understand this fits your concept, in which the majority gets to oppress the minority; but some of us have a rather wider conception of self-government.

No you don't. Why do American blacks have to be led by whites or atheists by the religious?

If Lincoln had been the first US President to be elected, then yes, his would have been a meaningless election.

Elections are held so that blood need not be shed.
When you have to seize power by the sword anyway, what's the point of the election ?

The second election is the one that counts.

Nothing says American blacks have to be led by whites that I know about, now.

Michael:

Elections are held to determine who is legally authorized to shed blood. In 1860 that was Lincoln--he shed buckets. In Iraq it will be the Shi'a--they'll shed less.

Harry:

Nothing says Sunni have to be led by Shi'a. Indeed, India isn't led by a Hindu right now, is it? Hold the elections and let the chips fall where they may.

We know how they'll fall.

I have no problem with that -- each people should be allowed to misgovern itself -- but to encourage results that work against your own interest is crazy.

Yes, it is.