"Democracy" No Longer A Goal In Iraq

Do you remember when Republican senators and representatives proudly painted their thumbs purple and declared Bush successful in creating a democracy in Iraq? Well, it now seems that "democracy" is not quite working out the way they planned. In fact, many U.S. officials are ready to give up on the idea of a democracy in Iraq.

The government installed by Bush seems totally incapable of ruling the country. It cannot control the violence. It cannot deliver basic services. In fact, the only thing it does well is argue among itself. Many U.S. officials are so disappointed that they would be happy with a non-democratic government that could offer some security.

Brig. General John Bednarek says, "Democratic institutions are not neccessarily the way ahead in the long-term future." Even Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus admit that they are "now engaged in pursuing less lofty and ambitious goals than was the case at the outset."

I can't believe they ever thought that puppet government would work in the first place. No matter how much they claimed it was, the current government was never a truly democratically-elect government. The only candidates allowed to run for office were those approved by the U.S. -- the occupying power. If all of your candidates must be approved by a foreign power, then you do not have a democracy. You have a puppet government.

The Iraqi people know this government is nothing more than a puppet controlled by the Bush administration. That is why they don't support it, and will get rid of it as soon as we leave.

But since the Bush administration has failed at installing a sham democracy, it now seems they want to re-install a dictatorship. If they is what they want to wind up with, then they should have just left Saddam in power. But at this point, even that won't work. The Iraqis will never accept any government we try to impose on them.

The only thing that will work at this point is to withdraw our troops and let the Iraqis determine for themselves how they will be ruled. Anything else is destined to fail.