What sort of government will Iraq have?

(I was beginning a post on this last night when my Mac locked up.)

If early indicators are correct, it will be secular.

The shy family doctor who became the leading candidate for prime minister Tuesday says ending the nation's rampant violence is his top priority and that U.S. troops would remain as long as they are needed to achieve that goal.

In an exclusive Associated Press interview, Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a 58-year-old moderate Shiite Muslim politician who fled a brutal crackdown by Saddam Hussein in 1980, also talked about drafting a constitution that will draw not only on Islam for inspiration.

"Islam should be the official religion of the country, and one of the main sources for legislation, along with other sources that do not harm Muslim sensibilities," said al-Jaafari, who currently serves as Iraq's interim vice president and was living in London until Saddam's regime was overthrown.

He said he supports women's rights, including the right to be the president or prime minister, as well as self-determination and individual freedoms for all Iraqis.

Doesn't exactly sound like a theocracy, does it? All the hand-wringing and posturing about Shiites this and clerics that seems to have been for nought.

What hand-wringing and posturing has not been for nought since this whole charade started? The constant references to Vietnam, the bleating complaints about casualites, the sudden concern about civilian deaths when they were ignored under Sadaam — all this, and much more, has been swept by the wayside. Shock of all shocks, Arabs, Kurds, Bedouins, et. al, all seem to be enamored by the dream of freedom. If I didn't know better (sarcasm here), I'd say there were a lot of racists among the world's "experts".

The common man (that's you and me, folks) understands what freedom means and needs no "book learnin'" to figure it out. It's the elites, the educated, the ruling classes who somehow think they know better than us what is best for our lives. For years they have controlled the battleground of ideas because they controlled the presses.

Then along came the Internet, and things changed. A dialog began. Common men all over the world took up "arms" and began to write about their frustrations. Obelisk after obelisk fell. Common men began to ask themselves, "Why have we believed these people? Why, when they lie constantly, have we seldom questioned them?"

The answer was simple. They were the only ones talking.

No longer.