As we noted several days ago, the Iraqi elections were indeed credible. The Sunnis who make up less than 20% of the Iraqi population charged fraud after preliminary results indicated that their parties only won about 19% of the seats in parliament. Apparently the Sunni skill of bomb-making doesn’t extend to mathematics. The Sunnis were so “outraged” that they took to the streets. This is a tactic the Sunnis, who are new to democracy, borrowed from their supporters in the American Democratic Party, who trumpet a similar charge when they loose elections. If you can’t win legitimately then castigate the results and sow the seeds of doubt in order to de-legitimize the actual winner.

Unlike the Democrats, however, the Sunnis have been chiefly responsible for a murderous terror campaign in Iraq, that has led to the deaths of thousands of innocent men women and children. They rue the day Shiites assume a leadership role in the country after 70 years of Sunni oppression, most recently under the iron fist of Saddam Hussein. The Sunnis therefore have threatened violence, big surprise, if their assertions of fraud are not investigated. Now the UN has come out in support of the Iraqi parliamentary elections noting that they were very much above board, as we have stated.

What the Sunnis hope to accomplish is to instill a sense of fear in the Shiite majority so much so that they will grant concessions to the Sunni, giving them a greater voice in government, disproportionate to their electoral standing. What the new Iraqi government does at this point will be critical. If the government stands firm and refuses to knuckle under to intimidation, there is a real chance democracy may take hold in Iraq. If they appease these groups under threat of violence, Iraq’s democracy will be permanently weakened setting a precedent, which will be impossible to shake. A government that submits to threats can never successfully govern.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1448317