"…the prime minister has been contesting the results of the March 7 vote. State of Law has appealed the outcome in Iraq's courts and now, Allawi's bloc says, Al-Maliki is using state security forces in a bid to gain enough seats to emerge the winner.
This week, at least two winning Iraqiya candidates in the capital were told they are wanted, bloc officials and the candidates said. Two others are on the run in the mixed Sunni-Shiite province of Diyala, and another was detained before the elections.
Sunni Arabs see the victory by Allawi, a secular Shiite, as their own. Many Iraqis and analysts worry that Sunnis will feel cheated if Allawi loses his lead before the new parliament is certified, a development that could spark retaliatory violence just as U.S. troops are drawing down to a mandated 50,0000 by summer's end." Partlow
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OK. There is more than one way to "skin a cat." If you can't win a plurality (satisfied?) in the election then you can always drive enough of the victors into hiding to shift the balance.
Am I discouraged by this naughtiness? No. The Iraqi electorate came out of the shadows to vote its interests and managed to elect a true nationalist slate to a plurality in spite of the machinations of Ahmad Chalabi that hero of the Wolfowitzians. (That sounds like something from Gulliver)
Maliki should think this over carefully. His obvious coalition partner is Allawi and the 'Iraqqiya group. That path leads to relative calm and a modernist independent Iraq. A religious Shia coalition in these circumstances will lead back into the abyss. pl
http://www.startribune.com/world/89739807.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUsZ
Love it.
PL,
Do you think the al-Hakim and al-Sadr blocks could successfully form a government with Allawi? They both appear to leaving open that possibillity. By successful I mean without a massive military/police crackdown by al-Maliki.
BTW, you have ignited a personal interest in Rothko abstracts. Thanks.
TTG
I find Rothko compelling. pl
The Godmother of my daughter, who knew Rothko, commented to me once when I was talking about his paintings, that “he was a mystic”. Clearly for some of us he touches something very deep and powerful with in.
I have never seen an actual Rothko up close and personal. From these reproductions I can get a sense of how hard Rothko worked on these paintings, and I can sense that there is something there to be gotten, but I find myself unable to “get it”. I consider that an admission rather than a boast, however.
A set of artworks I find personally compelling are Alexander Calder’s mobiles, for whatever that may say about how my mind works. Perhaps I am just projecting my own thoughtfeelings or sensibility onto them.
DC
When you meet one, I suggest that you stand a yard away from it for a while. That is what he wanted. pl
“Maliki should think this over carefully.” That’s asking a lot of him, isn’t it, Colonel?
I will probably go to a service at Rothko Chapel in Houston during the next several weeks.
Col Lang, what is your assesment of the probability of a coup, military or otherwise, in Iraq as soon as the US leaves. Back to dictatorship.
RW
It is possible that Iraq may find a way back to the level of representative democracy that it had under the Hashemite monarchy, but that is only one possibility. Another is that the country’s sectarian politicians will drag the political process down to a point where the emergence of a dictator becomes inevitable. pl
I have trouble imagining Maliki entering into a coalition with the Alawi list. Maliki and his list-mates are all too much Iranists in their hearts to accept a trans-sectarian Iraq. They may also fear any non-Iranist Arab presence in government to be a first step to re-imposing Sunni Bathi rule over them. (I don’t think the Alawi list-folks would use their government presence that way myself).
I can’t imagine Alawi entering a coalition with a partner who persecutes and threatens some of his co-elected list-mates. A good boss takes care of his people and I can’t imagine Alawi violating the code of two-way loyalty.
So I still imagine Alawi working with the Sadr Group and maybe that little Kurdish good government party to block and deny Maliki. If Alawi’s blocking bloc can delay Maliki long enough, the Alawi-Sadr alliance may win over the big non-Talabani Kurdish party.
If Maliki won’t give in to all that, then I suppose Maliki will set off the Civil War resumption he would rather have.
These are just my totally uninformed personal imaginings, to be sure.
If I ever meet a Rothko, I will stand a yard away from it; as you suggest. ( I will also advance and retreat from it some and walk back and forth as well…to see if that helps me).
R Whitman
Please let us know about your service at the Rothko chapel. No one appreciates Rothko more than I. In fact, awhile back, Col. Lang was kind enough to post an essay I wrote on Rothko.
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/the_athenaeum/2008/03/sidney-o-smith.html
I sure would like to read anything you wrote…under your full name, of course. No reason to be bashful when revealing your artistic predispositions.
Something to remember, particularly when comparing Rabbi Teitelbaum to Rothko. Mystics do not commit suicide. Never. Those who want to become mystics but, for whatever reason, don’t make it, do commit suicide. Even tragic heroes.
Ain’t you a lawyer?
Sidney O Smith III
I am not R Whitman the lawyer, thats a cousin. I am by education, a chemist and am long retired from the technical instrumentation business. No publications. Any technical pubs under the name R Whitman are from another cousin.
I have attended functions at the Rothko chapel a number of times, the last, a memorial service for a locally well known friend.
Rothko Chapel is used for many functions. For example the local NPR station mentioned that some author was speaking and would have a book signing this week.
Personally, I do not “get” Rabbi Teitelbaum. To me he comes across as just another Politico-Religious figure selling an idea.
PL,
I happened to be in downtown DC this morning, so I took in the Rothko exhibition at the National Gallery of Art. This exhibition focused on his black paintings from 1964. I have to admit this was an overwhelming introduction to Rothko… definitely a leap into a dark abyss. As you suggested I took each painting in from a yard away to study the varied hues and textures before moving further away. As I left the exhibit, I felt the emotion of the paintings. Either that or my aging eyesight was inducing vertigo.
For those in the DC area, I recommend this exhibition. In addition to the 1964 series of black on black, there is a collection of his earlier works where Rothko prominantly used black. It will be the tower of the East Gallery for the rest of the year.