SOTU

Apparently Bush said something tonight, I missed it. But I gather that an American and Iraqi mother hugged. That's great. Two years after the infamous "16 words," we're celebrating Iraqi democracy, except we never found any WMD. But I guess no one cares that they were lied to anymore. It's all about a "free" Iraq now, except...wait...what's this? A whole portion of the Iraqi population boycotted last Sunday's vote??

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Feb. 2 - As poll workers tally the ballots from Sunday's election, Iraqi and Western officials say, it is increasingly clear that the country's once powerful Sunni minority largely boycotted the voting, confirming the group's political isolation.

While Shiites and Kurds, who make up more than 80 percent of the population, turned out to vote in great numbers, a Western diplomat said Monday, the turnout in Sunni areas appeared to be "quite low."

tisement

The thin turnout means the Sunnis, many of whom already feel deeply alienated from the American-backed enterprise here, could be vastly underrepresented in the national assembly. The 275-member parliament will oversee the drafting of a constitution, which is to be put before Iraqi voters later this year.

A lack of significant Sunni representation in drafting the constitution, Iraqi and American officials say, is likely to further embitter the group. And it could even lead to the failure of the constitution; under the rules drafted last year to guide the establishment of a new Iraqi state, a two-thirds "no" vote in three provinces would send the constitution down to defeat. The Sunnis are a majority in three provinces.