http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usiraq21dec21,0,3730143.story?coll=la-story-footer&track=morenewsThe lead-up to the Dec. 15 Iraqi election and the election itself got an awful lot of media attention and air-time... yes, Spygate has dominated media coverage recently as it should, BUT there has really been almost NOTHING about the Iraqi election aftermath in the MSM for the past 2 days (this article posted here is a day old). Other than a few news articles, there has been no discussion or analysis on TV of what has probably resulted from the Iraqi election and the implications of those probable results.
Why? It is obvious that the new Iraqi gov't will be dominated by Iran-backed religious Shiites. Isn't this a big story? Now that our WMD-hunt turned to Democratic-nation-Building experiment has given birth to a theocratic-style gov't backed by our enemy, Iran, what does the B*sh admin have to say about "the mission accomplished" now?
The apparent failure of secular, Western-oriented political groups to win many seats in Iraq's four-year legislature puts new pressure on the Bush administration in its efforts to stabilize the country.
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On Tuesday, as election officials in Baghdad released data suggesting that Shiite-led parties had won big, there were signs the Bush administration was already working to damp enmity over the results.
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The Bush administration had vocally supported electoral alliances that crossed such lines, including the one led by former interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, a secular Shiite. But all such groups did poorly.
Allawi's Iraqi National List appears to have won only 21 seats, claiming 8% of the popular vote tallied so far, whereas the religious Shiite-based United Iraqi Alliance has apparently garnered 110 seats with an estimated 44% of the vote. Allawi and other groups are expected to pick up more seats in the 275-member parliament once expatriate votes are tallied.