Ayatollah Khomeini Thanks the Great Satan

Billmon has a post up about Iraqi Prime Minister al-Jaafari's trip to Iran during which he visited Ayatollah Khomeini's grave and heaped praise on the deceased Islamic tyrant. [And yes ... the picture is photoshopped and borrowed from Billmon's site].

In related news, the New York Times has a piece on the draft Iraqi Constitution. Apparently, the draft Constitution acknowledges Sharia law that paves the way for institutionalized discrimination against women. I've previously posted about how Southern Iraq is slipping into a theocracy that discriminates against women. Can there be any real doubt that the Shiite coalition is intent on pushing their discriminatory beliefs upon all women in Iraq?

Moreover, we've learned this week, in a piece by Seymour Hersh, that the U.S. used covert operations in an effort to game the Iraqi elections. Indeed, the piece suggests that election fraud was much more widespread than has been acknowledged with the Kurds and religious Shiites (possibly with Iranian aid) also taking part. This strikes me as eerily similar to the games the Iranians play with their "elections." Worse, for us, it takes away our moral authority to criticize the Guardian Council in Iran and other countries' governments that claim the mantle of democracy while adhering to some manipulated and bastardized version of an election that denies the populace its true say in picking their leaders.

Is this really what we sent our soldiers to fight, die and be maimed for?