Here's something I never thought about before. Even if a few of the "insurgent" provinces in Iraq don't participate in elections, there's precedent for that kind of thing. From Redstate:
The argument that incomplete Iraqi elections are ipso facto fraudulent or illegitimate is itself fraudulent and illegitimate. Wartime is wartime, and extraordinary measures must sometimes be taken to ensure the continuance of civic processes. The clear parallel from American history is the election of 1864, in which only 25 of the 36 states then in the Union participated. (The truant eleven, of course, were doing their best to not be in the Union.) If the Iraqi elections are illegitimate, then so was that; if the January '05 winner is illegitimate, then so was second-term Lincoln. You'll be waiting a long time for Rumsfeld's critics to follow their logic to that inevitable end.
2 comments:
The fledgling democracy can only survive if it continues to take over more of the common defense and welfare issues from the U.S. Although this process seems to be moving along slower than it should, it is moving along.
What I think John Kerry needs to do is add to his statements about pulling out troops that he will be willing to step up the establishment and protection of resources that Iraq needs to stabilize the situation. It is not wholly clear that he and many others believe this can be done even though he says he wants to "win" and he wants "victory".
On a slightly personal note, I think one of the general criticisms of myself that I get from reviews at work is that although I always get the job done, my pointing out potential roadblocks before a project starts is often seen as negative and reflects a "no can do" spirit and an anti-work attitude, regardless of the final results.
This is what's going on with Kerry. I think deep down people know he can do whatever he needs to do. But it's hard to build support when you're negative on the project in the first place. In fact, I'm not really sure that I know what he thinks needs to be done except for asking non-coalition members to join us in Iraq and take over some of the burden.
And until the French, Russians and Germans sign some sort of contract saying that they won't leave Iraq once bombs start going off at their embassies or in their home countries (never mind the inevitable beheadings), I ain't buying it. We already know how the UN, Spain and the Phillipines reacted.
I guess the French and Germans won't be going anyway.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1313933,00.html
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