Freedom to Fight Each Other Tooth and Nail

So now we have an Orange Revolution-style street protest in the wake of that PERFECT election last week in Iraq:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Large demonstrations broke out across the country Friday to denounce parliamentary elections that protesters say were rigged in favor of the main religious Shiite coalition...

Several hundred thousand people demonstrated after noon prayers in southern Baghdad Friday, many carrying banners decrying last week's elections. Many Iraqis outside the religious Shiite coalition allege that the elections were unfair to smaller Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups.

"We refuse the cheating and forgery in the elections," one banner read.

There were reports of large-scale vote-rigging in pretty much every election given in Iraq (that's our contribution to American-style democracy around the globe). What's new is that the Sunnis and the secular parties aren't content with taking it anymore. I don't know, however, that the Shiite majority would be any less if the election was dead solid perfect. Basically these weren't elections for policies and candidates so much as expressions of ethnic and sectarian identities. They did nothing but inflame simmering tensions.

If there was fraud in the vote I'm glad the Sunnis are out there. But sooner or later, they're going to understand that 20% of the populace cannot possibly translate into 50% of the vote. And with neither side interested in democratic compromise (and why should they be? Their American models show no interest in it either), the looming civil war draws ever closer, a war without a real possiblity for victory on either side. I think the only possible solution at this point is a tripartitie partition of the country into Sunni, Shiite, and Kurdish areas, with autonomous governments and full revenue-sharing of oil.

Meanwhile, about that well-trained Iraqi army...

Gunmen Friday attacked an Iraqi army checkpoint in the city of Adhaim, in religiously and ethnically mixed Diyala province, killing eight soldiers and wounding seventeen, an Iraqi army officer said on condition he not be identified for fear of reprisal.

"There were too many to count," said Akid, a 20-year-old soldier from Diwanayah being treated for gunshot wounds to both thighs. "They tried to kill everybody."

Akid, who would only give his first name for fear of reprisal, said his battalion of about 600 men had already suffered over 250 desertions after a Dec. 3 ambush in Adhaim killed 19 Iraqi soldiers.

"They gave up," he said. "They said, 'The hell with this.'"

That seems unbelievably brazen for a usually secretive insurgency, to come out in broad daylight and start shooting people in the street. Sadly the insurgency seems stronger than ever.