Iraq past the tipping point, analyst says

LONDON, June 13 (UPI) -- The political reconstruction of Iraq reached a tipping point in 2005, but the current government has reached its "sell by" date, the writer Amir Taheri said.

Taheri, an Iranian-born writer for The Times of London and The International Herald Tribune, writes that after the Iraqi elections in 2005, the forces opposing regime change lost the hope of restoring the balance of power in their favor.

"All terrorist and reactionary forces had pooled their resources to make sure those elections won't happen. The courage of the Iraqi people proved stronger," he writes for London's Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper Friday.

Taheri says there was an underlying wish for the Iraqi effort to fail, not because they wanted al-Qaida to emerge victorious or see Iraq hijacked by another dictator, but because of resentment toward U.S. President George Bush.

The 2005 elections gave the new Iraqi government a sense of legitimacy, but the patriotism and sense of accomplishment faded from the memories of the Iraqi people, he said.

"The 'one man, one vote, once' scheme has no place in democracy. The Iraqi Parliament and government are fast approaching their sell-by date," he writes.

Taheri said the 2005 elections were more of a census than a true democratic expression. He warns that now, while Iraqi politicians represent an organic democratic voice, most lawmakers still come from the elite class of society.

He says new elections will "cut out some of the deadwood in the political elite," adding those holding resentment against the United States for its role in Iraq would have a hard time maintaining that view after a second round of voting.