Iraqi Sunnis Borrow Strategy from US Democratic Party

Compare these two headlines

Sunnis Reject Early Iraq Election Results, Calling for Inquiry
By EDWARD WONG
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 20 (2005) - Sunni Arab leaders angrily rejected early election results on Tuesday, saying the vote had been fixed in favor of Iranian-backed religious Shiites and calling for an investigation into possible fraud. Secular politicians also denounced the results and demanded an inquiry.
nytimes

and

Historic Congressional Challenge to Ohio Election Results Spotlights Voting Irregularities
by Between the Lines' Scott Harris Thursday, Jan. 13, 2005 at 8:42 PM
betweenthelines@snet.net BETWEEN THE LINES c/o WPKN Radio 89.5 FM Bridgeport, Connecticut
For only the second time in 128 years, members of the U.S. Congress formally lodged a challenge to the certification of a presidential election. On January 6th Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a Democrat from Ohio was joined by Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat in objecting to the certification of Ohio's 20 electoral votes on the basis of documented voting irregularities. ...
... Rep. John Conyers Jr. a Democrat from Michigan who had convened hearings to investigate the many irregularities, expressed his deep mistrust of the way the election in Ohio had been conducted.
la.indymedia


Are they quick learners or what?

Actually the thing that gets me is that some folks here will point to stories like the first one and use it to make the argument that our efforts to promote democracy are failing. (I would like to say that those same people wouldn't accept that the American experience is a failure, but unfortately many of those on the Left truly believe we are living in some kind of Bushilter fascist theocracy. I don't. Maybe they're just projecting... since they think that government should control all, they assume that the current US administration is doing what they would do.... It's sad that history, reason and truth aren't being taught anymore.) I disagree. Apparently it's become part of the way the game it played. It seems that the discourse has become so strident that the idea that "reasonable people can disagree" is no longer current. Crying foul at election time, seeing your opponents as devious at best, crooks and liers at worst is the state of the practice. If the Iraqis adopt this form of democracy... that's fine with me. Democracy works as long as the opposition doesn't blow up children, people out for a stroll, men standing in line for a job, and old men sipping tea.




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