April 10, 2005

Ahmad, author of the Iraqi Expat blog, is pleased about the election of free Iraq's 1st PM and President:

[...]
For the last 50 years, this is Iraq's first elected government, first Kurdish President, first non-Arab President of an Arab majority country, first elected Shia Prime Minister, first President to become Vice President, and certainly it is the first government that will be criticized by and accountable to the people (the voters) and their representatives (the MPs).
I know some people have criticized the National Assembly sessions as being choatic [Sic]; but I loved it, members are criticizing the government, asking questions, debating, etc. What is not to love? It's called democracy and they are learning it, like we are. I don't want to see any council were everybody agrees on what the leader says, what's the point of such useless council of parrots?
I am not worried - and you shouldn't be - that Al Jaafari might turn Iraq into Iran, since he only has executive powers but no legislative powers; also his cabinet will have many seculars, Kurds and other minorities. I personally believe that Al Jaafari is a rational, moderate and tolerant Shia, even though he represents Al Da'awa Party which is a religious party. He is a well respected soft-spoken diplomat who might lack the charisma and the strength required for this period! But I might be proved wrong on this one.
I wish him and his cabinet the best of luck.

So do I, Ahmad!
Godspeed to Talabani and Al-Jaafari and Long live the Free Iraq!
But, it does seem that there are some Iraqis who weren't too happy about this week's winners:
Officer commits suicide after Kurd made President
This man, a Sunni Baathist intelligence officer for Saddam, knows that the "jig is up" and that once the new Iraqi government tries Saddam and his top officers, they'll get around to guys like him for "crimes against the Iraqi people."
But the most upset person in Iraq had to have been "Uncle Saddam" himself:

Saddam Hussein watched the televised election of Iraq's new president from his jail cell yesterday and was "clearly upset", a senior official said.

Jalal Talabani, a former Kurdish guerrilla commander and sworn enemy of Saddam, was elected to the highest office in a parliamentary ballot, bringing a new government a step closer.

Under Saddam the only way Mr Talabani would have left his northern redoubt was in chains or a coffin, but yesterday he arrived in Baghdad in a blaze of triumph.
[...]

It was galling viewing for Saddam, according to Bakhtiar Amin, the human rights minister,
[Don't you know he was a busy guy?!-Jen]
who said the former dictator had chosen to view the recording of the parliamentary vote.

"He was clearly upset. He realised that it was over, that a democratic process had taken place and that there was a new, elected president," Mr Amin told Reuters.
[...]
Mr Talabani, 72, promised pluralism and respect for Iraq's Islamic identity in his acceptance speech.

"After being liberated from the most hideous of dictatorships our people - the Arabs, the Kurds, the Turkomans and the Assyrians - want to build a new Iraq free from dictatorship and tyranny, a democratic, unified Iraq," he said.

Without naming Syria or Iran, he warned neighbouring states against helping insurgents, and promised to build up Iraq's security forces.

Woo-hoo, Talabani!
You GO.