Election Day

For the Iraqis, it's time again to get out that purple ink. For many citizens, this could mean dodging bullets and suspicious looking cars loaded with explosives, but hey everyone agrees that freedom is worth dying for. Even though the citizens of Iraq didn't get to vote for war and occupation, (the ones who voted for the invasion were exiled Iraqis, or the leaders of foreign governments) but hey that's history, we all agree that no solution is perfect, so lets get on with it, wave those purple fingers.

The citizens who get to vote will most likely brave some danger, but nothing compared to the danger of those actually running for elections. In a real democracy, the candidates get called lots of bad names and are often subject to ridicule and the humor of some late night comics, and cynical bloggers. In fledgling democracies such as Iraq, the candidates get killed.

From Juan Cole, the only American who really knows what's happening in Iraq:

Four US troops were killed and a Sunni politician (Mizhar Dulaimi of Ramadi) was assassinated on Tuesday in the run-up to the Iraqi elections (scheduled for Dec. 15). Two days ago, another Sunni parliamentary candidate had been killed in Mosul. On Monday, Jalal al-Din al-Saghir, a Shiite candidate from the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, was subjected to a failed assassination attempt in Taifiyah on his return from campaigning.

Personally, I am rooting for the Iraqis, because the sooner they decide that they want democracy, the sooner we can stop killing them.

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