Same Old Story...

...different headlines.

In Iraq, like many other countries in the world (the vast majority of European nations, for instance) no political party can hold an actual majority in the government. The diverse factions - Kurds, Arabs, Shiites, Sunnis, Islamist, secularists, and a wide variety of smaller divisions within and without those groups ensures that a coalition must be formed to govern effectively. (Some Americans may be surprised to discover that the two-party system that has evolved there is the exception to the global rule.)

In the wake of last year's elections in Iraq, that coalition building is ongoing. No surprise to anyone, the process is complex, with allegiances and loyalties shifting faster than desert sands in a land that has not known democracy since approximately the time those sands were formed. All of this is set against a background of ongoing violence, with some parties determined to derail the process entirely.

The latest development is a coalescing group opposed to the continued role of Ibrahim al-Jaafari as Prime Minister. I'll spare the details, you'll find most of them in the stories linked below. For now suffice to say the Parliament is scheduled to hold it's first meeting this weekend, but the Shiites want a delay in order to rebuild support for Jaafari, who was nominated for Prime Minister by a slim majority of the Shiite political group. Although that group is the largest block in Parliament, as explained above it is too small to achieve its goals idependent of support from among the other factions.

That's politics, at once fundamental and complex, and incomprehensible to outsiders (and insiders too, but they can fake it better). And while democracy may have been absent from those sands for some time, rest assured that the participants in this great game are no strangers to politics.

What's interesting is the contrast in how two major newspapers in the US have elected to present this story to their readers - who are more accustomed to an infinitely simpler "us vs. them" form of government. The headlines tell the story.

The Washington Post:

Delay Sought In Opening Of Iraq Assembly

Iraq's political parties continued to wrangle over the formation of a new government Tuesday, as the ruling coalition of Shiite religious parties tried to delay the first meeting of parliament, scheduled for Sunday, to have more time to line up support for its nominee for prime minister.

Shiites Threaten To Block Opening Session Of Parliament

Shiite officials said Tuesday that they might block the opening session of the new Parliament that the Iraqi president has called for, further delaying the process of forming a full four-year government.

The Times piece is another Ed Wong story, by the way. You can't blame him for the headline likely written by his superiors, but Ed's at least a prefect in the "hysteria school" of journalism.