Bob Herbert on the Iraqi elections is right on the money

[BurtWorm]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/31/opinion/31herbert.html?hp=&pagewanted=print&position=

January 31, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Acts of Bravery
By BOB HERBERT

...

In a war with very few feel-good moments, yesterday's election would qualify as one. But as with any positive development in Iraq, this one was riddled with caveats. For one thing, dozens of people were, in fact, killed in election day attacks. And shortly after the polls closed, a British military transport plane crashed northwest of Baghdad.

...

And we should keep in mind that despite the feelings of pride and accomplishment experienced by so many of the voters, yesterday's election was hardly a textbook example of democracy in action. A real democracy requires an informed electorate. What we saw yesterday was an uncommonly brave electorate. But it was woefully uninformed.

Much of the electorate was voting blind. Half or more of those who went to the polls believed they were voting for a president. They weren't. They were electing a transitional national assembly that will have as its primary task the drafting of a constitution. The Washington Post noted that because of the extreme violence that preceded the election "almost none of the 7,700 candidates for the National Assembly campaigned publicly or even announced their names."


...

Despite the pretty words coming out of the Bush administration, the goals of the U.S. and the goals of most ordinary Iraqis are not, by a long stretch, the same.

...

[Skittles]

1. the bar is always lowered below pond scum level for bush inc

always

[orpupilofnature57]

3. Right on the money,and kkkarl makes him look like F.D.R.

Like the music teacher that moves the piano one degree a day for a year.

[Just Me]

2. Democracy at gunpoint.

I don't believe anyone will ever convince me that a unilateral war of aggression under the initial deceptive auspice of WMDs then as a means to impose democracy with violent force is a solid and/or acceptable policy by any nation in the world.

[acmavm]

4. What's just as pitiful as the poor Iraqis not knowing that they weren't

voting for a government of their own is the fact that so many idiots, assholes, and morons in this country think that's in fact what that election was all about.

[dbt]

7. "I saw it on the news, so it must be true."

The hobgoblin of the Murkin Mind.

:freak:
dbt

[gottaB]

5. Yes, it's intelligent and well-argued.

thanks for posting it

[Maraya1969]

6. Well that just goes to show ya

that the integrity of the Iraqi election was almost as bad as the integrity of the US election.

[annabanana]

8. The ads made it look like they were voting for us to leave!

MSM even showed clips of the US troops, driving away, that were shown in the Iraqi "get out the vote" ads.

[BurtWorm]

9. kick