Free and fair election, eh? Hmmmmm.
OK, for starters…which party is the “Fuck You, America, Get Out Now!” party? (There may even be such a party, I frankly don’t know, I find it hard to understand how there can be over 100 different parties without some overlap of policys…)
If no such party is represented, then the elections aren’t free, now are they, because clearly some Iraqis feel that way. Very clearly. Very direct demonstrations of feeling.
Another problem is the unexamined ideal. I tend to agree, democracy is the answer to problems not even thought of yet. But this is not a universally held ideal. The loathesome thug Al Zarqawi, for instance, promotes the view that the very idea of “democracy” is western, Yurpeen, and anti-Islamic. Secular, in a word. For people who adhere to this notion (and I have no idea how many there are in Iraq), the election is not only moot, but an oppressive imposition on the Iraqi people.
Given the results of polling cited elsewhere, any likelihood of a pro-American government, freely elected, is vanishingly small. We’ll be lucky if they aren’t actively hostile in the Iranian mode. Is a freely elected enemy in the ME your idea of a splendid result? Isn’t mine. Sure wouldn’t have given up over a thousand of our best to secure such a result.
One cannot avoid the feeling that your intention here is to gloat, to present us with a Wonderful Thing that the Bushiviks have wrought. If so, be warned: just because they say so, don’t make it so. You may have noticed this in your dealings with the Bush Regime, their record for straightforward candor and truth is, well, mixed. Lies mixed with bullshit, mixed.