'Democracy denied in Iraq' counter goes up again


Posted by Helena Cobban
January 29, 2006 8:48 PM EST | Link
Filed in Iraq-2006-Q1

45 days and counting... It's an outrage.

I confess that when I wrote this post on January 25, I for some reason undercounted the number of days since the Iraqi election. Oh well, now I've got the automatic counter up there, the software does the counting for me.
I'll just restate what I wrote there:

    The US government, which is the occupying power in Iraq, also claims it is a strong advocate for democratic rule (equals "rule by the people") everywhere. Yet the voting system put in place by the US, this time, as in the elections of January 2005, has more or less guaranteed that sectarian/ethnic parties would predominate and has made it very hard indeed for these parties to form a government.

    Democracy, I repreat, is rule by the people being governed. It has nothing to do with rule by an occupying military power. At its base is the concept of national self-determination. The US military and political bodies in the country have no legitimacy to have any say in running a democratic Iraq. They must plan to leave the country with all possible haste.

    In the meantime, their presence and their machinations are yet further delaying the formation of a governing administration in Iraq that is accountable to the country's people.

I wonder, am I the only person who thinks it's an unconscionably long time for the Iraqi people to be left in a state of limbo since that very important election? Why does it seem that no-one else is making an issue of this?



Comments
Comment from... A Alexander Stella, at January 30, 2006 12:06 AM:

okay, let's say you'd like to learn about an actual political campaign to impeach the president ...

ah, none of this noise about a yearning for somebody to go do it ...

in addition, you'd like to learn about a game plan to snag Osama ...

if all the above meets with your approval, then click, somehow, on the following hyperlink:

http://hewhoisknownassefton.blogspot.com/2006/01/osama-and-our-president-dumass-botch_20.html

and get ready for a ride on a wild blog

toodles
.......\
.he who is known as sefton

oh, yes, the above was copied and then pasted by an actual human being, who visited your "just world news" blog.

oh, one more thing, keep an eye on Pennsylvania's 10th Congressional District ... I'm trying to base my campaign on the three planks I nailed together in my platform ... "impeach bush" is the first plank ... the second is "impeach bush" ... and the third is like the second, "impeach bush".

Comment from... J Koch, at January 30, 2006 10:14 AM:

The reason for the delay should be obvious. It's hard to create establish a majority rule that also gives a minority (the Sunnis) veto over that rule. This is the underlying issue, regardless of whether it is in relation to naming a cabinet, structuring the army, dividing the revenues, or deciding between unitary and federal arrangements. The insurgency will sabotage just about any forumulas which do not harken back to pre-2003 Sunni primacy.

Some Sunnis may dislike the insurgency, but neither will they want to disarm until they feel protected. Other Sunnis will fight to the death rather than accept rule by minority [sic] "Iranians."

If the horse trading and quibbling goes on forever, Iraq will gradually turn into three separate countries with a "capital" in protracted chaos and regional minorities in danger of vindictive "cleansing."

Answer this: exactly what government arrangement would be "accountable" to the people? Why suppose that the people want what their neighbors will accept? Ever hear of "irreconsilable differences"?

[Side comment: Impeach Bush? No thanks. Keep Dick Cheney in his present job.]

Recent Posts on JWN
• Realism, war, and pacifism (3)
• Palin's performance: Insulting and very scary (28)
• September 11 and the war in Afghanistan (6)
• US's global dominance 'Reduced': It's nearly official! (1)
• JWN redesign update #1 (2)
• Oliver North??? (5)
• J. Diehl criticizing Saakashvili (3)
• Peres warns against attacking Iran (0)
• Georgia-Hizbullah: Dept. of Delicious Ironies (2)
• US probing Russian Red Lines in Georgia (0)
• Women discuss Sarah Palin (26)
• New vistas-- personal, and blog-related (12)
• The longterm status of Georgia: Challenges ahead (20)
• Text of the draft Iraq-US SOFA (10)
• HRW revising its Russian cluster bomb accusations (11)
• International tensions and the US election (9)
• Iraq: Another Quaker in the 'Red Zone' (3)
• HRW's flawed 'Research' on Georgian cluster bombs (20)
• More on China in Iraq (12)
• Post on China in US occupied zones-- at Japan Focus (0)
• Palin and the 3 a.m. phone call (39)
• China and Iraq (4)
• Egyptian delegation to break Gaza siege (2)
• Waiting for Gustav (5)
• Italy gives Libya $$ compensation for colonial rule (17)
• China buys in to Iraqi, Afghan end-games (15)
• "Resolution": Palin's goal in Iraq (8)
• China's way of 'Emerging' (6)
• A note on US politics (6)
• Conway does a Dannatt (sort of) (7)
• China gets Iraq oil deal (6)
• Rest-of-world saving US from recession? (5)
• Russia and the world (12)
• Milanovic: From Global Trade to Global War (5)
• The return of geography (3)
• Still no US-Iraq security agreement (yawn) (2)
• Iraq-US: More disagreement than 'Agreement' (23)
• NATO's supply lines in Afghanistan (27)
• My CSM piece on the big-picture implications of Georgia (21)
• Mahbubani on western hypocrisy, etc. (5)
• Condi in Baghdad: YES on a timetable (aspirational) (8)
• More on NATO, etc. (14)
• NATO's crisis (8)
• And another thing about Finland (23)
• Where in the world is... Ban Ki-Moon? (22)
• Russian military assessment: New arms race? (26)
• And now for a little audio (0)
• Yglesias nails McCain (4)
• Sarkozy's ceasefire, Georgia's future (22)
• Georgia crisis and the shifting global balance (0)