Jordan Islamists Sweep Polls For Bar Assoc.

Yesterday in Newshog's comments, Dan Collins of rightwing blog Protein Wisdom repeated one of the most spurious of all the reasosn the Bush administration and its chearleaders gave for the inavsion of Iraq: "that we would make the Islamists understand that there would be a significant price to pay for commiting atrocities against the US." At that point, I suppose, the Islamist menace was just supposed to curl up and die in awe at America's majesty, wealth and military might...even though they hate America for being richer and more powerful.

So how's that curling up and dying going?

Islamists swept polls held on Friday for the election of a new council of the Jordan Bar Association (JBA), clinching all seats of the influential body, an official announcement said Saturday.

Saleh Armouti was re-elected as JBA chairman for a second term of four years, while his "White List" won all 10 JBA seats, it added. Armouti is an ardent Islamist and Arab nationalist, who was member of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's defence team.

The renewed domination of Islamists on the JBA stirred speculation that the organization would step up its efforts to agitate the Jordanian public opinion against the US-led invasion in neighbouring Iraq as well as against the normalization of ties with Israel.

I would add that - even before the US and Israel - Jordan's Shiite minority is likely to come in for some harsh times from a Sunni Islamist controlled bar. The Jordanian government has been ratcheting up fear in the majority against its 2% Shia population for some time now.

Indeed, as far as I can see, far from curling up and dying Sunni Islamist groups have gone from strength to strength since the Iraq invasion - both in terms of armed extremism and in successes at the ballot box. The same can be said for their Shiite extremist counterparts.

If showing Islamists that "there would be a significant price to pay" was truly one of the motives for invading Iraq - a nation that had no part in the atrocity of 9/11 - then the conclusion has to be that this part of the mission has been an abject failure.