Sunni Party Pulls Out of Iraq Vote As Doubts Grow

[Jon8503]

By Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, December 28, 2004; Page A01

BAGHDAD, Dec. 27 -- The largest political party representing Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority announced Monday that it would drop out of the Jan. 30 election, dealing a fresh blow to the vote's credibility on the same day the top Shiite Muslim candidate survived a car bombing.

The withdrawal of the Iraqi Islamic Party, combined with the assassination attempt on cleric Abdul Aziz Hakim, heightened concerns that the parliamentary election may produce a lopsided result, further alienating Sunni areas where the armed insurgency is growing.
Iraq Casualties

Number of total U.S. military deaths and names of the U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war as announced by the Pentagon yesterday:

1,321 Fatalities

In hostile actions: 1,038

In non-hostile actions: 283

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28323-2004Dec27.html

[SHRED]

1. Headlong to civil war

Shi'ite rule will exact revenge on the Sunnis and cozy up with Iran. The Kurds will push hard for a separate country. Civil war will break out and the USA will withdraw to protecting the oil fields.

Am I getting close?

[Jon8503]

2. Yes, absolutely correct.

[amber dog democrat]

3. Maybe the US could create a new Panama

consisting of just oil fields and keep it as a protectorate - just in case Iraq balkanizes.

If a civil war ever gets underway with a unified political government - we are more doomed than we are already.

Let Freedumb Reign. I hope the Chimp is in office when it all falls apart.

[shady lane]

4. This is a bluff

I think they are just bluffing, trying to see if they can leverage something out of the Shiites.

If there was going to be a civil war in Iraq; it would have happened by now.

[maxsolomon]

6. brilliant deduction, 4 posts

welcome to DU.

civil war commences once the common enemy is defeated.

[mogster]

5. Deleted

Posted in wrong thread