In Iraq's National Assembly elections, candidates who have links to the Bush regime were routed. The pro-Iranian Shia religious coalition United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) will dominate the National Assembly. Despite the elections, attacks on the occupation forces are now occurring at an incredible rate of 700 per week.

The elections, rather than providing the basis for unity amongst Shia, Sunni and Kurds, have created even more divisions. It is now possible that the National Assembly will be run by an unstable coalition between the reactionary clerics who dominate the UIA and the Kurdish parties led by President Talabani. These elections have further institionalised the sectarian divisions with Shia voting for Shia, Sunnis for Sunnis and Kurds for Kurds – US dreams of a democratic, federal Iraq have been demolished.

Although the US military has not let up on its attacks, over the last six months the Bush regime has been trying to bring Sunni resistance fighters into its so-called political process. US Ambassador Khalilzad told Time in reference to Sunni resistance forces, "We want to deal with their legitimate concerns". Major General Rick Lynch spoke in late November of the administration’s "deliberate outreach…to the rejectionists" to allow them "to become part of the solution and not part of the problem.

The strong anti-Sunni stance taken since the elections by the powerful Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI - who dominate the UIA) and Muqtada al-Sadr may have dealt the US government’s strategy to draw Sunnis away from the resistance struggle and into the government a fatal blow.

The Shia dominated Iraqi security forces, the Badr militia, some sections of the Sunni resistance and Al-Qaeda are involved in an increasingly vicious sectarian war, with innocent civilians on both sides suffering. In reference to sectarian attacks on Shia civilians, the leader of the SCIRI’s militia the Badr organisation, Hadi al-Amiri told Reuters that Shia "popular opinion" is "about to explode", "they’re telling us if you can’t protect us then let us protect ourselves". The elections have prepared the conditions for the intensification of this sectarian conflict.

Revelations on the torture of prisoners by the CIA in illegal camps shows the lengths to which US Imperialism is prepared to go in order to secure Iraq’s oil reserves. Bejamin Mohamid was held at the "dark prison" in Afghanistan. He told his lawyer: "It was pitch black… they hung me up. I was allowed a few hours sleep on the second day, then they hung me up again, this time for two days". For 20 days they blared loud music into their cells. "The CIA worked on people, including me day and night…plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off" Asia Times 21 December 2005.

The working class and poor masses of Iraq continue to suffer intolerable horrors at the hands of imperialism. The US are engaged in a massive "air war" in an attempt to reduce troop casualties; thousands of bombing raids have occurred regularly targeting cities and towns. According to the US Central Command Air Force in November, it carried out 996 bombing raids and they have been using napalm and the infamous chemical weapon white phosphorous.

As the third anniversary of the invasion approaches a study by economist Dr Joseph Stiglitz has found "the total costs of the war, including direct costs and macroeconomic costs, lie between $1 trillion and $2 trillion." Yet there is 70% unemployment in Iraq, the price of cooking fuel and petrol has just been increased fivefold as part of a loan agreement with the IMF, and food rations are to be cut by 25%. These attacks on a population who are already impoverished have lead to protests.

None of the current sectarian leaders offer a way out of this nightmare for the Iraqi people. It is only by ending the imperialist occupation and overthrowing capitalism that the Iraqi people can have any future. It is to this end that the Socialist Party stands for the building of a mass movement of the Iraqi working class and poor - united in a struggle for a socialist Iraq in which its vast wealth and resources will be owned and democratically controlled by the working class for the benefit of all.