Iraqi Elections & Evolutionary Phase
By Denise Best | Related entries in In The News, The WorldLet the elections (and theorizing) begin!
Iraqi voters began streaming to the polls Thursday morning in nationwide elections as Iraqi leaders predicted that the vote would split almost evenly between secular and Islamist parties and usher in lengthy political maneuvering.
Not surprising that there would likely be a contentiousness between secular and religious parties … that dynamic is pretty prevalent as evidenced by our own country’s wrangling over the respective “place” of state and religion.
The voting itself is expected to reveal a fissure of another sort, between a Shiite coalition of religious parties on one side and a mostly secular array of Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish parties on the other.
Between them are profound differences over the direction of the country and the nature of the Iraqi state, not just over how heavily it should influenced by Islam but also over the powers of the central government and the autonomy granted to local regions. Implicit in those questions, for many Iraqis, is whether the country can survive at all.
The results of the elections are likely to determine whether and to what extent the Bush administration can begin significant withdrawals of American troops next year. American officials, including the ambassador here, Zalmay Khalilzad, are expected to take an assertive role helping the Iraqis put together what is likely to be a coalition government.
Sounds an awful lot like fundamental questions and differences in governing perspective our nation faced which evetually set the stage for the Civil War.
The elections are being seen by Iraqi and American leaders as the definitive test of the Bush administration’s assumption that a free vote is the best means for reconciling Iraq’s vastly polarized ethnic and sectarian groups and defeating the Sunni Arab insurgency that is threatening to break the country apart.
Given there’s an undeniable evolution that a nation must go through in its maturation, there will no doubt be dissension and challenges, perhaps even civil unrest.
As this will invariably happen, how much accountability should be laid upon the current administration?
This entry was posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2005 and is filed under In The News, The World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
December 15th, 2005 at 1:22 pm
current administration? do you mean Bush? if so then none. you said it yourself that all states must go through a natural growth and evolution. Bush will be no more resposible for future Iraqi political unrest than he is for the American Civil War. it is a part of a nations growth, especially as a democratic state.
April 25th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Usher
Music has always been an integral part of our lives. In recent years,