Election in Iraq
The Iraq Election
By Daniel G. Jennings
I’ve refrained from commenting on the Iraqi elections because I think the story has been exaggerated to the point of distortion by the media.
It’s wonderful that a successful election has been held in Iraq and great that a majority of Iraqi voters turned out for it. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that democracy and the rule of law are coming to Iraq. Elections in themselves, even successful ones don’t guarantee those things.
China had a rather successful election back in 1912 or 1913, it still doesn’t have democracy over ninety years later. There were several successful elections in Germany between 1918 and 1933 that didn’t keep Hitler out of power. Nor did elections in Latin America prevent dictatorship. In the 1910s and 1920s the US military held very fair and scrupulous elections in a number of countries including Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua those countries quickly fell into dictatorship. Recent Russian elections didn’t prevent Vladimir Putin’s march to authoritarianism.
So what will guarantee democracy and the rule of law in Iraq? Simple a successful government dedicated to the rule of law, freedom, democracy and the common good. That is far harder to create than it sounds.
The Founding Fathers did it here in the United States but they had it far easier than the Iraqi government will. The Founders didn’t have a well armed, well organized and homicidal insurgency dedicated to their destruction like the Iraqis do. Nor did they have several thousand years of history to deal with. The Thirteen Colonies were a multi-ethnic society but there was no history behind it. The Dutch in New York had no reason to hate the Puritans in Massachusetts and the Germans in Pennsylvania no reason to fear the Scotts Irish in Virginia. The only group hated and feared were Native Americans who had been pushed into the wilderness.
Even in the United States it took two centuries, a bloody civil war and dozens of elections to create a constitutional democracy that protects the basic rights of all Americans. Many Americans would say that we still haven’t arrived there yet.
Judging by history it’s going to take a lot more than one election to create a successful constitutional democracy in Iraq. It can be done but it’s going to take a lot of blood, sweat and tears and cost a lot lives - some of them American.
By Daniel G. Jennings
I’ve refrained from commenting on the Iraqi elections because I think the story has been exaggerated to the point of distortion by the media.
It’s wonderful that a successful election has been held in Iraq and great that a majority of Iraqi voters turned out for it. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean that democracy and the rule of law are coming to Iraq. Elections in themselves, even successful ones don’t guarantee those things.
China had a rather successful election back in 1912 or 1913, it still doesn’t have democracy over ninety years later. There were several successful elections in Germany between 1918 and 1933 that didn’t keep Hitler out of power. Nor did elections in Latin America prevent dictatorship. In the 1910s and 1920s the US military held very fair and scrupulous elections in a number of countries including Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Nicaragua those countries quickly fell into dictatorship. Recent Russian elections didn’t prevent Vladimir Putin’s march to authoritarianism.
So what will guarantee democracy and the rule of law in Iraq? Simple a successful government dedicated to the rule of law, freedom, democracy and the common good. That is far harder to create than it sounds.
The Founding Fathers did it here in the United States but they had it far easier than the Iraqi government will. The Founders didn’t have a well armed, well organized and homicidal insurgency dedicated to their destruction like the Iraqis do. Nor did they have several thousand years of history to deal with. The Thirteen Colonies were a multi-ethnic society but there was no history behind it. The Dutch in New York had no reason to hate the Puritans in Massachusetts and the Germans in Pennsylvania no reason to fear the Scotts Irish in Virginia. The only group hated and feared were Native Americans who had been pushed into the wilderness.
Even in the United States it took two centuries, a bloody civil war and dozens of elections to create a constitutional democracy that protects the basic rights of all Americans. Many Americans would say that we still haven’t arrived there yet.
Judging by history it’s going to take a lot more than one election to create a successful constitutional democracy in Iraq. It can be done but it’s going to take a lot of blood, sweat and tears and cost a lot lives - some of them American.
posted by great one at 5:58 PM
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