Quote:
Originally posted by bilmore
If Sunnis, or any significant bloc, were not able to vote because of fighting, fear, or whatever, I would call that a failure. If they choose to boycott because of their perception that they were about to lose, I'd say, tough beans. I have little sympathy for the Sunnis as it is - they gladly held all the power under their beloved leader, and pretty much did their part to ruthlessly keep the majority down for all of SH's years. Just as I would have no sympathy if the hardcore evangelicals here decided to boycott an election, I have none for the Sunnis. It's not that they object to the method - they are simply pre-objecting to the result. They know they've lost their hold. By withholding their vote, they take on no more moral weight then they presently have.
|
Apologize if someone else made that point, but it took you very few posts indeed to move from a discussion of whether we're likely to see the birth of a functional democracy in Iraq to a discussion of our (lack of) sympathy for the Sunnis who are about to be on the outside of the "democracy" looking in. I agree -- screw the Sunnis -- but once we're having that conversation the important game is already over.
Of course, the Bush Administration, in its munificent wisdom, made this problem much worse by selecting a method of voting that awards representation in proportion to the number of voters who actually show up, unlike the way we do it in this country, in which the number of representives in the House, Senate or Electoral College has nothing to do with the level of voter turnout in a particular jurisdiction or election. If the Sunnis were guaranteed representation in proportion to their share of the population, they could boycott the election and still be represented. So now you have the Administration talking about monkeying with this formula, with a month (less?) to go before the vote. Not surprisingly, other Iraqis object to have the rules tampered with at this late stage. Not surprisingly, few Americans seem to be asking why we are messing in this way with the election procedures of a putatively sovereign country.
