Election Jones

The Times of London's Richard Beeston reports on something about which the American media is curiously silent: the enthusiasm with which Iraqis are approaching the upcoming election.

You mean there's news other than terror attacks?:

Notwithstanding insurgent terror aimed at wrecking the polls, there is finally a palpable sense in Baghdad, and other Iraqi cities, that the country is entering a new era.

At the Babylon Hotel tribal sheikhs in long gowns and Arab headdress gathered to hear politicians extol the virtues of Iyad Allawi, the interim Prime Minister, who was being touted as the only man with the strength and will to solve Iraq’s numerous problems.

They've clearly learned much from American politics and politicians...:

Elsewhere street urchins were discovering that democracy can pay. They have been hired en masse to put up posters and billboards on every wall space available...

...including, apparently, Phyllis Kahn:

... and probably paid a little extra to tear down the slogans of rival politicians.

After I started this, I saw that Ed had commented on the Beeston piece as well.

Contrast this with the image of Baghdad we receive daily from American media, most of whom can't or won't staff the city with their own reporters. Americans are told over and over again that the city is so wracked with violence that Iraq's largest city can't possibly be included in its first parliamentary election. And yet here we have plenty of political activity, even celebrations of it, occurring out in the open. None of the above happened spontaneously, after all; they needed some planning and publicity to succeed.

It shows that the Iraqis have the courage to see the elections through, as they clearly understand that the only way to truly set themselves free is to take power into their own hands.

True.

And for all that, I think that for all the justifiable importance of this election, the real test will be the next one; the success of the first election and parliament, and the Sunni realization that the Shi'a majority won't exact revenge on them through the electoral and legislative process, will be among the real keys to the starving out of the terrorists, as they have been in Algeria since their pivotal election - every bit as important as this one - in the nineties.

Posted by Mitch at January 28, 2005 06:41 AM | TrackBack