Funny how when a Bush ally cries electoral fraud, he's acting in the best interest of democracy. But when progressives here do it, we're all loony and sour-grapes.
Nevertheless, all hell is about to break loose in Iraq. The secular Shi'ites are teaming up with the Sunnis to contest the election -- threatening to take to the streets and boycott parlaiment -- unless there's a re-vote. Meanwhile, the champeeens in Bush's bloody experiment are allied with Iran, the insurgents (al-Sadr), and are anti-Israel.
Iraq's Sunni Arab and secular parties threatened on Wednesday to boycott the new parliament after alleging massive fraud in last week's election, ramping up pressure on the triumphant Shi'ite Islamists to share power.
Sunni rebels, whose informal truce helped push turnout to 70 percent as insurgents pitched for a voice in the new, full-term legislature, warned they would intensify attacks if the Shi'ite Alliance held on to the lion's share of power.
The Electoral Commission, which opposition groups demanded be dissolved accusing it of bias, rejected calls for a rerun of the vote, saying complaints were numerous but unlikely to affect the overall result [sound familiar? -Bob] -- a view held by U.S. and U.N. officials.
. . .
Representatives of secular Shi'ite former prime minister Iyad Allawi and two major Sunni Arab groups, the Islamist-led Iraqi Accordance Front and the secular Iraqi Unified Front, along with other groupings, met on Wednesday to coordinate.
"We all agreed to contest and reject the results of the election," said Allawi aide Thaer al-Naqib. "We want the Electoral Commission dissolved and the election rerun."
"We will take to the streets if necessary," he told Reuters. "We might even not take up our seats in the new parliament and so any new government would be illegitimate."
Heckuva job, Bushie.
And mcjoan at Kos reminds us:
Meanwhile, let's not forget that the total number of Coalition fighters dead is 2360. Iraqi civilians dead as a result of the war are likely 100,000+. 80 journalists, mostly Arab, have been killed. And there have been, by the DOD's count, 16,000 G.I.s wounded.