Sunnis Admit Election Boycott Was A Blunder

The Guardian reports that Iraq's Arab Sunnis now realize that boycotting the election was a blunder:

Iraq's Arab Sunnis will do a U-turn and join the political process despite their lack of representation in the newly elected national assembly, Sunni leaders said yesterday.

Many Sunnis protested that the election was flawed and unfair, but in the wake of Sunday's results, which confirmed the marginalisation of what was Iraq's ruling class, their political parties want to lobby for a share of power.

"Our view is that this election was a step towards democracy and ending the occupation," said Ayad al-Samaray, the assistant general secretary of the Iraqi Islamic party. He said unnamed Sunni leaders blundered in depicting the election as a deepening of the occupation.

Maybe the Sunnis finally figured out that they are a minority and now that they don't have Saddam to guarantee them preferred status they might have to play by the same rules as everyone else. Or maybe the seeing the joy of Iraqis participating in election was truly transformational.

Either way, if the Sunnis have decided that it is their best interest to participate in Iraqis fledgling democracy a truly important threshold has been crossed.

The Desert Tusk posts that The Sunni's gambled that the elections would turn out badly and are now trying to salvage what they can.

Thanks to Captain Ed for the tip.

UPDATE: Stephen Green calls this the biggest story of the day. Steve is right.