In these circumstances, a majority of European voters have recently shown, once again, that they favor the right and its tendency to support the fortune seekers.

There is certainly good reason to be concerned about Maliki s temperament, his small group of advisers, his tendency to exercise personal control in the use of state power, and his reputation, partly merited, of making empty promises.

The Shia are the majority in Iraq, and the Sunnis need to become reconciled with that fact. There is certainly good reason to be concerned about Maliki s temperament, his small group of advisers, his tendency to exercise personal control in the use of state power, and his reputation, partly merited, of making empty promises.

As a very junior priest who derives his authority from his dead Ayatollah father himself a populist Sadr is opposed by Iraq s living Ayatollahs, who despise his ignorance and violence. Sadr cannot possibly compete with them in religious authority, so he takes an Arab nationalist stance against them, often recalling that the highest Shia cleric, Ayatollah Sistani, is a Persian, not an Arab.