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January 28, 2005
The Countdown to Elections in Iraq
"Everyone in Iraq just wants one thing; we want to have a stable prosperous state. It doesn't really matter who wins, what matters is building this country in the way that God and his prophet want. It would have been better to have elections in peaceful times. Those terrorist will kill lots of people on election day with their bombs." ---Ayoub Sadoon, 70, Retired
This Sunday will most likely be a bloody day for Iraqis as they head to the polls.
I truly hope that this is not the case, but I think it is sadly inevitable. The religious fundamentalists who are using barbaric violence to thwart this election no doubt have the most to lose and they understand what is at stake. For when people can freely elect their leaders, liberty, for the most part, is secured for all. In such an environment they will be marginalized, and this is what they fear.
This piece by John Podhoretz from earlier in the week makes this point well:
Now, it will certainly be tragic if Sunnis who wish to vote are forcibly prevented from doing so by the terrorists in their midst. But those Sunnis' best chance to secure their freedom to vote at a later date will emerge from a viable result in Sunday's elections.
Why? Because once a legitimately elected Iraqi assembly is seated, the insurgents will have no argument left with which to advance their cause except for the open hatred of liberty.
The latest tape from Iraq's terrorist master, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, made that point crystal clear. "We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology," Zarkawi says. "Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part of it."
Note that Zarqawi doesn't say he's fighting imperialism, or foreign invaders on Iraqi soil, or any other (and far more seductive) argument. He is waging war on democracy inside Iraq on the right of Iraqis to choose their own leaders and structure their own governments.
Zarqawi is a very frightening and very evil man, a destructive force with hundreds of gallons of American and Iraqi blood on his hands. Iraqis and Americans alike have reason to be concerned about his declaration of war. But calling democracy "evil" is a self-defeating exercise. By doing so, he is including among the evildoers all Iraqis who go to the polls.
His fight will no longer be with Western devils, but with Iraqi patriots. There is a very real likelihood that under such conditions, his insurgency will collapse from the inside or will merely transition into becoming a brutal gang of parasites who use kidnapping and the threat of terrorism to extort money, pure and simple.
Another point to remember is that that the struggle for democracy is seldom easy. This piece by Jeff Fischer in the Washington Post makes an interesting comparison between the elections in East Timor five years ago and those in Iraq this weekend:
I served as chief electoral officer for the [East Timor independence] referendum, or 'popular consultation,' as it was officially called. Carlos Valenzuela was my deputy. After the election, thousands of people were killed and thousands more displaced by the militia fighters and their Indonesian military masters. To my knowledge, this election was marked by the largest loss of life in history--far larger than Iraq's so far, in numbers and percentage of the total population.
Now Carlos and I are in Baghdad. Carlos is the chief of the international assistance team and the U.N. representative on the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq. I am serving as one of his advisers. We face a challenge here similar to what we experienced in East Timor -- to demonstrate that an election is the alternative to violence as a means of achieving a democratic goal.
Last week I was informed that a man named Riyadh, who was a professor of English working as an interpreter here, was targeted by the insurgents and killed. Riyadh, like Alvaro, was my friend. In his own way, he symbolized the modest aspirations of ordinary Iraqis who simply want to build a peaceful and free society, and who see the elections as a starting point toward this goal. He was gunned down for his belief. For Iraq, as for East Timor, there are broken houses on democracy's road. I will not forget the sacrifice of people such as Alvaro and Riyadh and the commitment to democracy that their sacrifices represent.
Best of luck to all those serving to keep the peace and to those braving the violence to take part in the election.
Hat Tip: Jeff Jarvis, & TIA Daily
Posted by Peter Mork at January 28, 2005 3:58 PM
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