Iraqis on Wednesday April 30 voted in their country's first parliamentary elections since the withdrawal of US forces in 2011. But it was no coming-out birthday party, by far. Hundreds of wanton killings involving rival religious groups led up to the elections and have continued to date.Some observers say Iraq today is like the Old West in the gun-slinging U.S. Western era 150 years ago. As Iraqi residents are murdered daily on the streets and in their homes in numerous cities, villages and towns, the country's strong-arm leader, Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, awaits a vote countdown expected to take several weeks as donkey-riding couriers gather and deliver votes from remote rural mountain villages and towns.
The United Nations reported that last year the death toll in Iraq was the highest since the peak of the sectarian insurgency in 2006 and 2007, with 7,818 civilians and 1,050 members of the security forces murdered.
About 2,000 have been killed in the first three months of this year alone. Sunni tribesmen and militants linked to the jihadist Islamist State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) have taken control of parts of Anbar province.
Maliki is seeking a third, four-year term in a Biblical country almost the size of Texas where electricity and telephone connections for many are still decades away. Despite several rivals who also showed up in the 2010 presidential elections, Maliki is expected to win, even without a clear-cut majority vote.
But the real politicking in Iraq is in the backrooms after the election counts. There, tribal leaders and religious factions will carve out their presence in the new administration.
Maliki argues the violence in Iraq today is being triggered by foreign Sunni countries including Saudi Arabia. Maliki knows he lives under an assassination cloud every day. Critics argue his eight-year-regime to date has been even more corrupt and dictatorial than that of the late Saddam Hussein.
Some say Maliki today has even more power in Iraq than Hussein had at the height of his madman rule. The U.S. does not want to see Maliki retain his post for another four years. But every year the American Congress still approves almost $2 billion in so-called "foreign aid" to Iraq.
With that kind of "backing," who wouldn't want to be top dog in Iraq politics today?
