Iraq Elections

Let me put al my caveats up front…

I have opposed George Bush since he first appeared as a candidate for president. Since 9/11 I have thought virtually his every move has put us further from the proper aims of this nation. Though I thought the invasion of Afghanistan perhaps necessary given what we knew of terrorist training camps and the Taliban, I thought our invasion of Iraq, without the support of most of the world, was a terrible mistake. Even so I was unprepared for the dimensions of the disaster that unfolded in Iraq following the toppling of the Saddam regime.

Since long before the recent turning of popular opinion against our continuing occupation, and for the return of our troops, I have thought we would, as we did finally in Viet Nam, have no choice but to pack up and leave.

Now, if the initial reports of a huge turnout in relatively peaceful elections turns out to mark a significant turnaround in the fortunes of Iraq and thus of the entire middle east, I will rejoice with the hardest line conservatives.

I abhor violence as a way to reach political settlement; I think it inevitably leads to more violence down the road.

But if today’s election is the beginning of the end of the insurgency and the beginning of some political compromise in Iraq, I will applaud the president for achieving a huge victory.

No doubt I will still search for Democratic candidate in two years with a radically different view of the world from that of George Bush and his cronies. Finding enemies of whom we are terrified strikes me as a terrible way to try to unify the country.

And turning the resources of the nation over to the super rich corporations seems to me a recipe for injustice, not to mention our outlaw status in the rest of the world.

But I have some hope for this administration’s Iraq policy I have never had before. I pray it may be justified.