Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 09/23/05 11:06 am:
Do I think their future is better now than under Saddam ? is the question.

answer : absolutely . it could hardly be worse .

Today Sistani supported the new constitution and even more telling he banned using the name of the clergy in partisan campaigns . If the top cleric in the country does not want religion involved in the process then I think the fears of a looming theocracy are over-blown .

The Kurds support it and I believe so does a majority of the Sunni.Many observers, polls and surveys expect a 80% turnout among the Sunni in the coming process ; the October referendum and the December elections.Such a high turnout will eventually bring legitimate representatives for the Sunni population and that's what Zarqwai doesn't want to see happen because there will be no pretext for his war and his jihadists will be farther apart from the Sunni militant groups that once were their close allies. The insugency is now reduced to attacking jobless in the streets ;how pathetic is that ! Do they think they are gaining allies in Iraq by utilizing that strategy ?

The Sunni will vote to either accept or reject the new constitution .If the Sunnis defeat the constitution, then the country votes again for a new National Assembly that will draft a new constitution and put it up for another vote by the country. Even that scenario holds out the strong possibility that more and more Sunnis will register to vote and exercise that right (and make up for their blunder of sitting out the January elections), thereby becoming involved in the political process, rather than supporting or tolerating Zarqawi and his fellow thugs .

The biggest problem that I see if the constitution is defeated in October is that the Western press will scream about the "failure" of democracy in Iraq, which will put more pressure on Bush and the Republicans to bail out. I'm not worried about Bush caving into that, but I am becoming concerned about the Republicans in Congress.

Don't use electricity as a measure of quality of life ;it is deceptive . Saddam made sure the Baath controlled areas were generally lit ;but nationwide there are more areas that are getting electricity for the first time . The blackouts in areas like Baghdad are more indicitive of the deterioration of the infrastructure due to neglect in the decade of the 90s .

As far as a civil war ..yeah it's possible ;maybe even inevidible . If there is then the once minority rulers will have a tough go of it .

I would rather be identifies as a proponent of the people than be indentified with the proponents of real-politik like Henry Kissinger who said ;yeah he is a dictator ...but he is ours .