Forums

[SlaveNoMore]

sgtclub
I don't think we can establish a legitimate government without holding the elections. I agree with you on authority, but for what it's worth, the Iraqi president was on MTP this week and said that the Iraqis security forces will be fully up and running within months, not years. Seems like a stretch from the reports I've read, but maybe he's right.

Krauthammer:

In 1864, 11 of the 36 states did not participate in the American presidential election. Was Lincoln's election therefore illegitimate? In 1868, three years after the security situation had, shall we say, stabilised, three states (and not insignificant ones: Texas, Virginia and Mississippi) did not participate in the election. Was Grant's election illegitimate?

There has been much talk that if the Iraqi election is held and some Sunni Arab provinces (perhaps three of the 18) do not participate, the election will be illegitimate. Nonsense. The election should be held. It should be open to everyone. If Iraq's Sunni Arabs - barely 20% of the population - decide that they cannot abide giving up their 80 years of minority rule, which ended with 30 years of Saddam Hussein's atrocious tyranny, then tough luck. They forfeit their chance to shape and to participate in the new Iraq.