Iraq's First Democratically-Elected Assembly Meets for the First Time

Talk about milestones! Finally, the new Iraqi Parliment has met and been sworn in! And this despite a small mortor attack, obviously designed to intimidate the assembly.

"It is a great day in Iraqi history that its elected representatives meet," said Fuad Masoum, a Kurdish delegate. "This day coincides with a painful memory that has many meanings. ... Today, on this occasion, we celebrate the inauguration of parliament after the fall of this regime."
Wednesday marked the anniversary of the Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)-ordered chemical attack in 1988 on the northern Kurdish town of Halabja, an attack that killed 5,000 people. Iraqi leaders have not yet agreed on a coalition government, and the leader of the Shiite-dominated United Iraqi Alliance, cleric Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, said his alliance hoped to "form a government whose motto is to serve the Iraqi people, a government of national unity and reconciliation."

Truly a new day has dawned for the Middle East!