Iraqi election

Just got a snippy e-mail from a reader. Essentially it’s an “I told you so” with some extra f-words thrown in because Iraq just had elections.

Let me just say at this point that I am relieved the whole affair did not escalate. I thought it would get much worse, as far as violence is concerned. But about the election itself I will reserve judgment until I know more.

At this point there are just too many things we don’t know:

• Who voted? Did some areas/ethnicities have the same rights/chances to vote as others?
• Who is the new guy in charge? Considering Chalabi was on the ticket as well, it could go downhill even though the “new guy” is democratically elected. (Believe it or not, that happens sometimes.)
• Even Bush aknowledged that violence will likely not stop with the election.
• One word: Vietnamization.
• X. (If I have learned one thing from watching the developments in Iraq over the last years, it hardly ever is as it seems.)