Ok, a Little More Cynicism

Here's the Guardian's piece on the elections yesterday that took a little wind out of my sails, though it's nothing compared to some other articles that totally decried the election. I'll put those up later. . . maybe. From the Guardian:

The most obvious message to draw from yesterday's elections in Iraq is that it will be a long time before it becomes clear who the real winners are. Not only is this literally the case - in that it will be at least a week and a half before the results are known, and many of the candidates were anonymous - but figuratively too. This election is, as Kofi Annan observed, only a first step in deciding Iraq's future. What happens from now on will decide what path Iraq continues along.

. . . When a nation holds its first elections after a long period of dictatorship, a temptation is to rejoice at the mere fact of its happening. The images and experiences of the countries formerly encased in Europe's Eastern bloc, as well as more recent examples in South Africa and Ukraine, have gained a romantic resonance. It would be too simplistic to transfer that romance to Iraq, because this was an election almost entirely unlike those others. In many respects it is difficult to be confident that this was a free or fair election, given the violence and intimidation surrounding it. On one side, Sunnis were threatened by the likes of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi to stay away from the polls, while on the other Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani issued edicts requiring his followers to vote. The fruits of democracy have yet to be tasted in Iraq. Yet that is not to say that something good cannot come of it, just that it is not yet obvious what the final outcome will be.

Ultimately though, with the election out of the way, attention now turns to the other questions that have become more urgent. Even if the elections have been some sort of success, we are still no closer to knowing when US and British forces will withdraw from Iraq. Similarly, we are still no closer to seeing the final shape of Iraq's constitutional settlement. Most importantly, we still have no idea when the grim nightmare of violence for Iraq's people will finally end.