Iraqi Political Analysis

"The New York Times has an interesting article on what's going on in Iraqi politics at the moment. Offices in the Embassy have been closely following these developments. Why would we care about internal politics in a dysfunctional 3rd world nation? Because our withdrawal is closely tied to it. The better they get, the quicker we leave. It's that simple.

But, really, nothing is simple in Iraq. This country has forever been dominated by strongmen, whether a monarch or a thug (Hussein). Democracy and sharing power are difficult concepts for them to understand, much less implement. Our elections process in the US is difficult, ugly, and often bitter, and we've been doing it for over 200 years. If an Iraqi politician talked about his rival like American politicians do, he's liable to get shot. (Actually, they do talk about rivals like that, and they do get shot. Or bombed.)"
Ramblings from a painter