Forget about Iraq, forget about these elections

Democracy? Good governance? Ain't about to happen.

Published on January 6, 2005 By Pranay Gupte In Current Events

Why do I have this increasingly weary sense that none of the electioneering, media propaganda, and diplomatic "make nice" is going to work? Look, everyday Iraqis don't want the US around on their soil. It should be pretty clear by now to all that even if they are force-fed these so-called elections, Iraqis are far, far away from establishing responsible institutions of good goverance that would be necessary to implement the promise of genuine democracy. It's just not going to happen.

Iraq is a lost land, at least as far as being a crucible for democratic change. Maybe a dozen years from now, when the hurts of the US invasion are healed and the political dynamics of the region change, it might be a different situation. But right now? More bloodshed, more mayhem, more bitterness. We can cogitate and bloviate all we want, but the situation on the ground isn't going to change, elections or not.

Comments

on Jan 06, 2005

I'll just wait, thank you. I don't see the need to lose hope before the event passes. Only way I'll lose hope is something major, major happened and election is not possible anymore.

Larry Kuperman

on Jan 06, 2005

It may take a dozen years to come to fruition.......but it won't ever happen if we don't start now.

dabe

on Jan 06, 2005

It will be interesting to see what happens after the elections, if they do in fact happen, but I'm not very hopeful that anything will change. Sure I agree that if change is desired, you have to start now. But, what if the Iraqis don't want change? What if the only way any change will occur is if we just leave them to their own devices? Why do we have to subject our citizens to death and countless amputations or worse, be responsible for the worst governmental demise in recent histoy? What gave the USA the right to go in and "change" their society? I'd venture that we had no right.

Right now, we're in a lose/lose situation, and the only thing that could possibly change my mind is if all of a sudden, after the "elections" all things become peaceful and rosy. But, I doubt that's going to happen. They hate us. They hate us alot. They only want us gone. They want to have control over their own rebuilding, so they can make their own money without such contracts handed out to American hacks, which preclude any meaningful profits going to the Iraqis themselves. They just want a piece of the pie that America stole from them. And yes, they want to fight and kill eachother until the cows come home. That's very sad, but we set that stage. We need to take responsiblility.for what I see as a criminal action by the neocons. We cannot fix it by staying in there and slaying every Iraqi who may (or may not) be an enemy. We must figure a way to do it from afar. War reparations, maybe. Resume the sanctions, maybe. But, we must find a way to extricate ourselves from that disaster. And the neocons must be held accountable for their constant lies and other manipulations of the truth that got us into this mess in the first place. Giving them medals is not what I would call accountability.

Remember all the oil money that was going to pay for the reconstruction? What a pile of horse hockey. This Iraqi fiasco is costing this country big time, and the sacrifices we make here, in education, health care, environment, etc. are huge. That's not to say that the Bush neocons wouldn't find another way to steal taxpayers money. I'm sure they would. But today, this is their reasoning. It has to just end.

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS. BRING THEM HOME.

ParaTed2k

on Jan 06, 2005

Apparently the Al-qaeda Press' (AP) propaganda is working.

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