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Tuesday, December 20, 2005On the Iraqi electionsThe results don't look so good, apparently. That's was PJM is reporting. There's only one thing to do, it seems to me: Live with it. This is a critical moment not just for Iraq but for the West. Will we have the good sense to respect the Iraqi voters' wishes? Or will our actions suggest that we just wanted a more neatly legitimated puppet? The joy of democracy, the Iraqis will soon find, is that you have to live with the results of what you vote. We shall see what the final tallies bring, of course. But if they bring the results now discussed, there is only one logical thing to do: Wait. These religious parties may soon discover they don't know what hit them. Winning elections in this part of the world usually means that you've strongarmed enough people to take control. The religious parties may find life more difficult when they have to work within a semi-secular constitution and with a society whose religious devotion is strong but, perhaps, not that strong. Should the religious partisans win, they must be forced to govern, and the people to live with the government they chose. At that point comes the real test: If the religious parties blow it and are voted out, will they step down? And if they don't blow it and aren't voted out, will we stand by our fellow democrats? The bottom line is that Middle East democracy will have differences from Western democracy. These will lessen as the universal values unleashed by life in free society bubble up, but we're in a long term project here. As long as the Iraqis are able to take back such mistakes as they make - by freely electing someone else - but are also permitted to make them - by our support for what their democratic process brings forth - we'll be fine in the long run. Recall, however, that it took 60 years for us to leave Germany, ostensibly part of the West to begin with. We're in for a long haul. But if we stick to it, we'll be well rewarded. 
posted by gbarto at 12:05 PM |
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Day By Day© by Chris Muir.Old TurkeyBlog here.
