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December 26, 2004

So much for democracy

Kevin Drum explores the newest twist to the failed Bush Iraq policy. It seems that the... um... braintrust somewhere deep in the bowels of the administration has decided that the appearance of democracy in Iraq will work better than actual democracy.

The NY Times reports: The Bush administration is talking to Iraqi leaders about guaranteeing Sunni Arabs a certain number of ministries or high-level jobs in the future Iraqi government if, as is widely predicted, Sunni candidates fail to do well in Iraq's elections.

It's a position that the administration has been forced into because of the repeated blunders in strategic planning that can be traced directly to NeoCon ideologues contemptuously ignoring the advice of competent professionals (registration required).

The real shame of it all is that it didn't have to come down to this farce.
As Kevin Drum explains: "A year ago there were plenty of good proposals that could have avoided the worst of this fiasco. The best of them made use of geographical precincts, like an American congressional election. Under a system like that, there would have been plenty of predominantly Sunni precincts that would have elected Sunni representatives regardless of whether or not turnout was low. It wouldn't have been perfect, but it almost certainly would have been better than the kludge we're ending up with."

If these clowns were only making a laughing stock of NeoCon ideology that'd be one thing. But, they're making a laughing stock of everything that this nation has ever stood for.

“The Nation, which indulges towards another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave… to its animosity or to its affection, either of which is sufficient to lead it astray from its duty and its interest… Such a passionate attachment… produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary interest… where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification…” George Washington

Posted by Kevin at December 26, 2004 01:17 PM