Iraq Update -- Parliament Meets

I haven't been blogging much lately on Iraq because what is going on there is mostly the endless intricate negotiations involved with forming a government. In other words, the normal process of parliamentary democracy. Unless you are a direct participant you can go mad trying to follow the endless twists and turns of political dealmaking. What happened yesterday, though, was special.

Patrick Quinn, writing for AP reports:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) The newly sworn-in members of Iraq's 275-seat National Assembly failed to elect a speaker, set a date to reconvene or even nominate a president, but they did celebrate the enormous obstacles Iraq has overcome.

Quinn's article focuses relentlessly on the deficiencies of the meeting.

Before taking their oaths Wednesday, some two years after the fall of Saddam Hussein, lawmakers had to endure mortar barrages and wailing air raid sirens as insurgents made their presence felt.
....
Absent from the assembly hall were large numbers of Sunni Arabs, thought to make up the core of the insurgency. Sunnis, who were favored under Saddam's regime, mostly stayed away from the national elections either to honor a boycott call or because of fears of being attacked at the polls by militants.
....
Although Wednesday could have been a day of celebration on Baghdad's streets, many were devoid of traffic blocked off by security forces fearing suicide attacks and car bombs. Traffic restrictions also kept many people away from work.
....
Insurgents, hoping to disrupt the ceremony, fired seven mortar rounds in quick succession at the convention center that temporarily houses parliament in the heavily fortified Green Zone. The explosions and air raid sirens sent people outside scurrying for cover. Inside, the blasts brought a startled silence to assembled delegates but did not prevent the ceremony from taking place.

Granted, Iraq is not Switzerland, but this was a historic and important meeting nonetheless. The symbolic value of what took place in Baghdad cannot be underestimated.

First, just the fact that the meeting took place was significant.

''This day marks a new birth for all Iraqis. It marks the birth of the parliament,'' said Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the Shiite politician expected to be Iraq's next prime minister.

And it was broadcast into the homes of every Iraqi citizen.

Iraqis... gathered in homes to watch the ceremony live on state-run television and Arab satellite channels.

And the message being sent was that Iraq had taken a huge step toward integration into the community of nations.

''It is a new stage for us that makes people feel freedom and the beginning of a real Iraqi state. It will make us feel that we're no different from others in the world in applying the democratic process,'' said Kadum Ali Audah, 35, who works in the communications ministry.

Images of the meeting displayed a rich mingling of traditional Iraqi and modern western modes.

Many of the new deputies wore traditional robes trimmed in gold, and mingled with austere Shiite clerics in black robes and turbans during their swearing-in on Wednesday. Men thought to be pegged for government jobs mostly wore tan or gray suits, while nearly all the 85 women lawmakers wore headscarves.

Men in traditional robes, clerics in black, men in western business suits, women with and without headscarfs. Sounds like a healthy mix to me -- a blending of traditions. Note, that men who are going to be running the government adopted modern western garb. This is going to be a secular state, not a theocracy.

Even the date of the meeting conferred symbolic importance as a break with the Saddamite past.

While it was a historic day for Iraqi democracy, Wednesday also served as a reminder of a scarred past the 17th anniversary of a chemical attack that Saddam ordered on the northern Kurdish town of Halabja.

Now Iraqis have something other than a massacre to remember on this day.

And regarding the "insurgents":

Insurgents, hoping to disrupt the ceremony, fired seven mortar rounds in quick
succession at the convention center that temporarily houses parliament in the
heavily fortified Green Zone.

But they didn't disrupt the ceremony and the fact that they didn't reminded Iraqis that,

Cleric Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, leader of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, which holds the largest block of assembly seats, led a series of prayers thanking God for giving Iraqis the courage to cast aside their fear and vote.

''This is a great historical achievement that challenged the bombs of death and those with a deep hatred of life,'' he said, referring to the insurgency.

Couldn'ta said it better myself.

My congratulations to the Iraqi people.