Bush loses election.........

........No not the one in November, the one in January. Juan Cole reports that the big loser in the Iraqi elections was the Imperialist Neocon Party of George W. Bush and company.

The three big winners were the United Iraqi Alliance (about 48 percent), the Kurdistan alliance (26 percent) and the Iraqiyah list of interim prime minister Iyad Allawi (about 13 percent). These three account for 88 percent of the seats in parliament, or so. The other eleven percent go to tiny parties like that of al-Yawir, the Sadrists (Cadres and Chosen List) and the Communists.

Although he spent a great deal of probable American money on advertising Iyad Allawi's party came in a poor third.

Although Allawi's list is among the three with more than two digits, in fact he lost big. Allawi had all the advantages of incumbency. He dominated the air waves in December and January.

The big winner is of course Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani who has played the Bush administration like an old fiddle from the beginning. If he is willing to give the Kurds a semi autonomous province in the north he can probably have about anything he wants in the rest of the country. The fact that the Sunnis did not vote and are not represented all but guarantees the insurgency will continue at full speed. To make matters worse for the Bush administration the election probably means at least a marginally friendly relationship between Iraq and Iran. Just another example of how imperialism and Democracy are incompatible.