Seeds of Democracy or seeds of chaos

Jazz had a post this morning on the shooting of an Iraqi General and what may be behind it. As Jazz said the Iraqi Security Services is full of individuals with their own agenda. In the New York Times, Robert Worth tells us about the seeds of revolt and chaos are sprouting on the streets of Iraq.

Haithm Ali, a wiry blacksmith, was welding an iron gate in his shop in Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum in northeastern Baghdad, when he was asked for his thoughts about the country's new national assembly. Mr. Ali's face broke into a bitter smile.
"I don't expect any government to be formed," he said, his welding glasses pushed up over his forehead. "And they won't find any solutions to the situation we find ourselves in."

The title of Mr. Worth's article says it all, "Many Iraqis Losing Hope That Politics Will Yield Real Change".

"The president and cabinet won't do anything for this neighborhood," Mr. Ali said, sweeping an arm toward the sewage-flooded streets around him. "They are only looking out for their own interests."

This represents the feelings of the Shiite majority. And in the Kurdish region the attitude is even more ominous.

Kurds, meanwhile, generally saw themselves as citizens of the separate country of Kurdistan and judged the talks a waste of time. They often faulted their leaders for even trying to join in an Iraqi government. Ala Mahdi, a 24 year-old law student in the northern city of Sulaimaniya, said the stalled talks were pointless.

"I would prefer that Barzani and Talabani come back to Kurdistan and tell everybody we don't want to be part of Iraq," said Mr. Mahdi, referring to the leaders of the two major Kurdish political parties, Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani.

Sounds like a brewing civil war to me.

"No one thinks about what the Iraq people need," said Walid Mohammad, 63, the imam of Al Sadiq mosque in Baghdad. "They all work for the occupier. Whatever America wants, that is what will happen in the end."

Have we planted the seeds of freedom and Democracy in Iraq or lit the fuse on a powder keg?