U.S. officials have been surprised by the speed with which Shi'ite Muslims, who comprise 60 percent of the Iraqi population but have never led the nation, have asserted themselves in the vacuum left by the fall of Saddam Hussein.
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[An Iranian-backed regime] would be strategically unacceptable to Washington, which will need to find and foster moderate Iraqi political forces to prevent it. So far, it is not really clear what the majority of the Iraqi people want.
Officials worried that there seemed to be no way of telling what Iraqis wanted. "If only they'd organize themselves into some kinf of identiofiable groups that could fill this vacuum," one official said. "If only they'd assert themselves." When asked if the self-assertion of the Iraqi Shiites might be a clue to their desires, the official scoffed. "Come on -- who would organize a religious group for political ends? No, we're just going to have to wait until we see some sign that Iraqis know what they want. Usually this happens through polls, so maybe we just need to wait for the pollsters to get here. Then they can tell us what all these people waving 'U.S. get OUT!!' signs really think."