First Door on the Left

It does not appear that things went well for the Bush administration’s puppet in the Iraqi elections this past Sunday…

U.S. ‘in for a shock’

Baghdad — Partial results from Sunday’s election suggest that U.S.-backed Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s coalition is being roundly defeated by a list with the backing of Iraq’s senior Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al- Sistani, diminishing Allawi’s chances of retaining his post in the next government.

Sharif Ali bin Hussein, head of the Constitutional Monarchy Party, likened the vote outcome to a “Sistani tsunami” that would shake the nation.

“Americans are in for a shock,” he said, adding that one day they would realize, “We’ve got 150,000 troops here protecting a country that’s extremely friendly to Iran, and training their troops.”

The partial totals so far show the Iraqi List headed by Allawi, a secular Shiite and onetime CIA protege, trailed far behind with only 18 percent of the votes, despite an aggressive television ad campaign waged with U.S. aid. A lopsided majority of votes, 72 percent, went to the United Iraqi Alliance list, topped by a Shiite cleric who lived in Iran for many years and whose Sciri party has close ties to Iran’s clerical regime. More than a third of the alliance’s vote came from Baghdad, the cosmopolitan capital where Allawi had been expected to fare well.

I cannot help but wonder what the reaction of the Bushies will be if the new government of Iraq favors Iran over the United States. They cannot refuse to honor the results of the election, can they? After all, they are using it as the cornerstone of their argument that Mr. Bush’s policy in Iraq is working and that he was right all along.

But (there’s always a but) these are preliminary election results that are being reported. We should have learned on November 2 of last year not to pay too much attention to preliminary election results.

Before another right-wing blogger posts about the “rudeness” of some of the Democrats during Mr. Bush’s speech this past Wednesday evening, he or she might do well to pause and read this post at Eschaton first.