John Cole already finds the left trying to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory in Iraq. We can expect more of this sort of thing over the next few days — a successful democracy in Iraq might help Bush, and we just can’t have that. We’ll hear about how the turnout in the Sunni areas was too low (although first reports has it higher than expected), we’ll hear about how if the Shi’ite list emerges on top that it’s a step towards an Iranian-style theocracy even though Iraqi Shi’a are different from Iranian Shi’a and have embraced secularism as an organizing principle.
We’ll hear calls for us to pull out now that the elections have gone well, even though our job is done. Anything that might presage failure will be splashed across the news and the realities of the situation in Iraq will be ignored.
If one believed the mainstream media, these elections should have been a massive failure. They clearly were not. The people of Iraq have embraced democracy and have shown great courage. This is their day, and they should have it. The constant pessimism of those who would see Iraq fall for their own political ends (I’m looking at you, Senator Kennedy) have suffered as great a blow as has Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi.
Liberals, of course, will say you have created a strawman that you are arguing against. Just a little more evidence that your strawman is real: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/30/11232/3330
Haven’t you learned anything from April 2003? For weeks, war-mongering Bushies were crowing about their “Mission Accomplished” and writing an onslaught of editorials telling everybody who would listen that the left was wrong in every one of their pre-war predictions. However, 21 months and tens of thousands of Iraqi and American lives later, the left’s apocalyptic prophesies were vindicated….and it was Bush’s apologists left to look like fools for prematurely declaring victory. Yet here you go again….before the voting has even finished, declaring a successful democracy in Iraq’s near future because the body count was held to double digits on election day. I was surprised the violence wasn’t more prominent than it ended up being, but it’s way too early for chest-pounding about Iraq’s successful elections until the votes are actually counted and unti we see the response from those whose candidate of choice didn’t come out on top. Considering that the Sunnis (those heading the insurgency) largely avoided the election today, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where the outcome will be satisfactory enough to keep tens of thousands more from dying in the next 21 months.