PM Maliki's main opponent alleges widespread fraud in Iraqi national elections

Andrew North, a BBC News correspondent in Baghdad, writes that there are fears violence in Iraq could surge again, as Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's main opponent, former PM Iyad Allawi, has alleged widespread vote fraud in that country's recent national elections.

Allawi believes he did better than the preliminary results show, and says the elections were not fair. Maliki was quoted following elections as saying, "I urge all politicians to accept the results; he who wins today may lose tomorrow and he who loses today may win tomorrow."

Many candidates of Mr. Allawi's party were disqualified just prior to the election.

As for the threat of a resurgence of violence, North writes, "The Americans are watching closely, knowing that things could still unravel with so many months of tortuous negotiations ahead. But at the moment, they are sticking to plans to reduce their forces to 50,000 by the end of August."

Jeremiah, writing almost 2,600 years ago about the coming violence, prophesied words as if from God himself: "I shall set fire to (the) cities, and it will devour all (the) environs," (Jer 50:32). And because of the fire, "the peoples will (have) toil(ed) for nothing, and the nations (will) become exhausted (because of the) fire," (Jer 51:58).

And because of the nations' frustration that their efforts were "for nothing," their leader shall say, "We applied healing to Babylon, but she was not healed; forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her judgment has reached to heaven," (Jer 51:9).

Now if no fires consume the Iraqi cities, and the U.S. withdraws its troops in success at reconstruction, according to an agreed to timetable, we can know with certainty that Jeremiah's prophecy has nothing to do with today's events in Iraq, but are of some future Babylon not yet revealed.

But if the cities burn, and the U.S. and all other occupying multi-national forces then withdraw out of failure at reconstruction, the next two judgments on Babylon will have occurred literally, and we can then expect the final four to occur just as surely -- civil war with and defeat by the Kurds, their plundering of Iraq's "treasures", a catastrophic flood event and subsequent drought, so that Babylon is rendered a complete desolation, where neither man nor beast may dwell, forever.