Iraqi Elections

The Iraqi's have voted in their first democratic election today.

The polls are closed, and it has happened.  No matter what you think of the war, this is something that has happened, and it is a good thing.

It is difficult for someone like me, who is skeptical of the war, to not be skeptical of the legitimacy of the elections.  It is difficult for the Right War Hawks to view this as anything but a full vindication of the President's war plan.  The blogs today have largely shown the worst aspects of its existence by being so partisanly shrill.  It is as if there is no in-between.

The liberal blogs seem to be frothing at the mouth for the elections to fail; vindication for their arguments.  The conservative blogs seem to be frothing at the mouth for a universal cry of legitimacy, while ignoring the violence and the large swaths of Iraq who aren't able to participate.

The truth, surely lies somewhere in the middle.  These elections are a good first step.  They aren't "legitimate" in the sense an American election would be, but they are better than nothing.  They aren't a failure, either. 

My complaint about conservatives, often, is that their ideology doesn't allow them the ability to look at the gray areas of life and understand that, no matter how hard they pound their fists on the table, there is more to governing our country than just the black and white.  Unfortunately, the members of the liberal blogosphere have taken up the cause.  There will be NO right in Iraq, and elections are doomed to be a disaster; that is the view of the liberal blogs.

It hurts the conversation and it delegitimizes our role to play in it.

UPDATE: TalkLeft is fairly evenhanded.  Andrew Sullivan (who normally shines when it comes to covering things like this) is leaning towards the positive side.  ...the thoughts are broken... agrees with me.

UPDATE II: Professor Cole has somethings we shouldn't forget.  He too views this as a "truth is somewhere in between" issue:

The Iraqis did not know the names of the candidates for whom they were supposedly voting. What kind of an election is anonymous! There were even some angry politicians late last week who found out they had been included on lists without their permission. (This is the part of the process that I called a "joke," and I stand by that.)

This thing was more like a referendum than an election. It was a referendum on which major party list associated with which major leader would lead parliament.

Many of the voters came out to cast their ballots in the belief that it was the only way to regain enough sovereignty to get American troops back out of their country. The new parliament is unlikely to make such a demand immediately, because its members will be afraid of being killed by the Baath military. One fears a certain amount of resentment among the electorate when this reticence becomes clear.

UPDATE III: AmericaBlog is salient too.

Comments

[Mike]

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from Mike (unlawflcombatnt):

I, too, am happy that the Iraqi elections have taken place. I think it is amazing that only 44 people were killed. I'm not being sarcastic here. I do think that is a much smaller death toll than many of us predicted.

The completion of the election gives the United States a better chance of withdrawing from Iraq. However, the fact that the election is now over will soon expose the great Republican fantasy. The fantasy that the Iraqi situation will change as a result of the elections. I doubt it'll change anything. But I really hope I'm wrong here. However, there's just no logical reason to think the completion of the election will make any difference. I hope Bush will rapidly declare victory and claim the insurgency has been defeated, then withdraw our troops. He needs to do this before his alternate reality is replaced by actual reality. The actual reality that Iraq is a complete disaster, and that the elections made no difference. Bush is pretty good at creating reality. I hope he will use his "creative" ability here. Before his "alternate reality" view of success is exposed, and replaced by the actual reality of the Iraq war's failure.

Mike

http://www.unlawflcombatnt.blogspot.com/