Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- "Iraqis approved a new constitution that will establish a federal government, the next step in the country's transition to democracy ... Almost 79 percent of Iraqi voters approved the charter ... Voters in provinces within the so-called Sunni Triangle, a center of attacks on the U.S.-led coalition, overwhelming rejected the proposal, while Kurds and Shiites supported it, raising concern that the constitutional process won't succeed in healing divisions among the country's three main communities."
The sour grapes reaction from the United Nations: "Results of the referendum have indicated the degree of political polarization in Iraq," the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq said in an e-mailed statement in which it also praised Iraqis for turning out to vote. "This poses an ongoing challenge for all Iraqis and underscores the importance of an inclusive national dialogue."
The UN spin ignores that Sunnis who voted to adopt the Constitution did so because their clerics advised them to vote, and to vote "yes." Several Sunni clerics figured out that the Constitution gives Iraq's Sunnis a better chance of getting more representation than the practice of lobbing bombs at their countrymen. Pity they didn't come earlier to this realization; if they'd done so the number of Sunnis voting to adopt the Constitution would have been much higher.
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