Iraq: Not Another Iran

Fire of Liberty

While the MSM keeps nattering on and on about Iraq turning into another Iran with Al-Jafari and his fellow Shiite coalition commanding some 140 seats of the 275 member parliament, cooler heads within the media beg to differ. One individual that I've come to trust on the happenings within the Muslim World is Ralph Peters (Lt. Col., USA, Ret.). According to his most recent Op/Ed in USA Today, Peters points out that Iraq's Ayatollah's will never blur their practices with the government's activities. Through past experience and observations of Iran, the clerics are well aware of the dangers and failure that the mad mullahs have created in Iran under the leadership of Khomeini and his heirs. Peters also notes that the people of Iraq will never be like Iran but its people will still have day to day relations with each other because their neighbors and in the Middle East you tend to avoid hostilities with bordering nations thus you put up with them.

While people worry about Iraq becoming another Iran, they need to take another look. Just think about the democratic spirit that's up and running in The Middle East, whether its Afghanistan , Iraq, the Palestinians or in Lebanon, the democratic movement is afoot and could arise again in Iran. Peters also notes the election in Iraq has opened up a new era of power sharing that calls for considerable amounts of compromise and cooperation amongst the various parties in Iraq. If you want to really understand the big picture of Iraq, Ralph Peters is a good start. Read him, you won't be disappointed.