Results from Iraq's Recent Election Trickling In

By Elias Isquith

The results from Iraq's recent Parliamentary election have begun to come in. Marc Lynch at Foreign Policy's blog notes that, in the much-discussed Anbar province, the Awakening coalition "seems headed for a near epic wipe-out." Why should you care? Because:

Over the last few years, most American analysts have argued that these elections would offer a path to power through the ballot box for the leaders of the Awakenings. Their evident washout in Anbar suggest that they won't, which may trigger a lot of the fears of those analysts (including me) who for years warned about the dangers of not accommodating Sunnis in the political system or integrating the Awakenings and Sons of Iraq into the state.

Thankfully, Lynch goes on to say that, at this point, there's less cause for concern than he'd previously imagined that the Awakenings leaders would respond to this electoral defeat with the shedding of blood. Baby steps, people.

Spencer Ackerman, meanwhile, draws attention to the fact that followers (at least in name) of the villainous and powerful Shiia cleric Moqtada Sadr appear to be looking at future in which they hold an excess of 40 seats in the Iraqi parliament. Sadr, remember, wreaked havoc on American and British forces - not to mention many of his fellow Iraqis - throughout the worst days of the insurgency, but agreed to scale back his violence upon meeting with General Petraeus and, who was in the process of implementing his "surge."

Ackerman clearly considers this development of great importance, but he's not quite flashing any emergency lights yet, calling the Sadrists "much more supple and pragmatic then they get credit for being."

Lastly, the aforementioned Petraeus went before the Senate Armed Services committee and, among other things, said that he expects it to take months before these election results are sussed out enough that a new government can be formed.

So get comfy.

(Photo from J.M. Lujit)