Is Iraq on a good path through a real battle against Iranian influence and corruption?
Iraq has some good trends going for it:
Deaths from Islamic terrorism or political violence continue at historically low levels. That is another change most Iraqis agree on and support. ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant) and pro-Iran radicals are encountering more resistance and less popular support than in the past. Now pro-Iran groups are sliding into the same status. The many Sunni factions are once again more united than in the past and willing to deal with Kurds or the Sadr coalition to improve the economic and political situation in Iraq. The Sunni coalition is also useful for reassuring the Sunni Arab oil states that investing in Iraq is the wise thing to do. After all, Iran is broke, and 80 percent of Iraqis are Arabs, and the Kurdish minorities in both are not friends of the Turks or Iranians.
It is good that both Sunni jihadis and now pro-Iran Shias are losing support. The war goes in in this newest phase of the Iraq War.
Well, those are good trends if Moqtada al Sadr isn't the threat to Iraqi rule of law and democracy that I fear he is:
Iraq's parliamentary election went smoothly. But I worry a lot about this development: "Although it is too early to know the exact numbers of seats for each party, it is very clear that Muqtada al-Sadr has made a remarkable victory with almost 80 seats." I worry that the three-time insurrectionist will wreck Iraqi rule of law and progress. I've long said we'll rue the day we didn't kill that man.
I hope optimism is justified and that Sadr has had a change of heart rather than just trying a different approach. Is getting votes just his new strategy for absolute power in Iraq after three insurrections failed?
