Vote Or Die

The other day I posted some thoughts on the elections: Iraq: Make or Break Time

Well, today is the big day... The elections.

An AP article: Iraqis Cast Ballots Amid Tight Security

My feelings on the war itself have always been negative. I didn't support it before it began (silly me, I had the strangest feeling that the case for war was misleading and had been hyped up) and the constant lies and mistakes and violence have only made me feel stronger that this was/is a mistake.

After 9/11, Bush stood atop Ground Zero for his photo-op and promised that the people who knocked these buildings down would hear from us soon. They both have (but probably not in the way we imagined) and yet they haven't, though we have caught 12 of the 84 #2 guys in Al Qeada. Bush promised that he would capture Osama bin Laden, 'dead or alive'. He didn't. To be honest, he doesn't spend that much time thinking about him anymore; he's truly not that concerned about him. Instead, the President settled for getting the guy who tried to kill his daddy and using every bullet, bomb, and dollar we have to give his particular idea of freedom to the Iraqi people.

The original rationale for the war has been changed so many times, the top remaining justification seems to be 'Well we're there already, so we better stay and try and fix this'. Which is a fair point, but nothing we do there will ever justify for me this utterly senseless, and vain, invasion.

Onto the main issue... Regarding the elections themselves and the potential of this democracy in Iraq to be successful (a somewhat separate issue from the invasion), my feelings can best be summed up as this:
I am rooting for this to work out, but I won't be holding my breath.

I would love to be proved wrong.

Still, it is my belief that if anything good comes out of this, it will be less of our doing and more of the Iraqis'. Any success in Iraq will be in spite of the United States. That isn't a knock at our soldiers, who are doing the best they can and never should've been sent to Iraq to occupy a nation in the first place. It's a knock at this administration (notably the Bush/Cheney/Rummy trio) and their complete incompetence in managing this war. The President says Iraq is a central front in the war on terror. Well it is now and you can thank Mr. Bush and Rummy and their 'bring it on'/'stuff happens' policies for that.

As I said, the only hope now lies in the Iraqis's ability to work together to turn this lemon into some half-decent lemonade. Assuming the people elected share our goals there.

The Iraqis choose a government this week. Odds are good that they may choose one that sides more with our enemies than they do us. Another unintended consequence of incompetent neocon foreign policy. Of course, as I said earlier this week, the election itself isn't the victory. The victory lies in the hope that a new government will curb the violence and make our presence there no longer needed. And then this 3 year distraction from the important tasks facing our country will be over and we (and hopefully the Iraqis too) can go on with our lives.

Fingers crossed, people. Fingers crossed.