Dr. Forbush Thinks

Some preliminary election results are in and there is certainly a surprise for the Bush administration. There is no surprise for anyone who actually reads or listens to the Iraqi people. Results from some of the more peaceful regions were released today and the news is bad for the American favorite Iyad Allawi. Iyad Allawi was the secular former Prime Minister who supported a cross-sectarian list of candidates. The US had backed Iyad Allawi in the previous election in order to avoid a religious civil war, but it doesn’t look like that’s what the Iraqi people want.

The people actually want their religious fundamentalism and true Democracy is what the Bush administration claims to want. If the people are actually allowed to have their way Iraq will likely because a second Islamic fundamentalist state allied with Iran, and sworn enemy to the Western Satan that the United States represents.

Of course more election results will continue to come in and surprises may happen, but it is hard to believe that we could expect different results coming from less American friendly regions of Iraq.

America does not have a good history of allowing countries to keep democratically elected leaders that it doesn’t like. In 1953 a CIA lead coupe de tat toppled the democratically elected leader of Iran. In 1954 the CIA toppled the democratically elected leader of Guatemala. In the Congo the democratically elected leader was also toppled with the help of the CIA in 1961. US history shows that the USA would rather support a right wing dictator than a democratically elected leftist. But today we are no longer at War with communism. In fact, we are at War with Terror. Since terror has many faces it isn’t certain how the administration will view the democratically elected leaders of Iraq in the light of their fundamentalist Muslim ideology. After all, terrorist groups like al Qaeda find their roots in fundamentalist Muslim misunderstandings of the Koran.

The official elections results won’t be out for some time, and once they are known Iraq will need some time to form a government. Chances are pretty good that no one group will have an outright majority, so two or more political parties will need to form a coalition and determine how the governmental responsibilities will be sorted out. However the coalition is formed this time around it looks like Islamic fundamentalists will have a major role to play in the government. And, chances are Iyad Allawi will not play much of a role this time.

So, what will the US do? After all, the United States has spent a great deal of blood and money in this effort. If the United States does not interfere with the Iraqi election process chances are pretty high that the new government leaders will not like the occupation of Iraq and call for the US to leave. If the US did leave the new democratically elected government would oppose US foreign policy and some members of the administration might feel that the effort was for naught. And, there could be a possibility that Iranian influence in Iraq could increase quite a bit. If that were to happen terrorists could possibly be welcome in Iraq, as the administration claims they are welcome in Iran. What will the Bush administration feel obligated to do? Democracy or US Security?









Politics, Iraq, Iraq War, President Bush, Impeach Bush