The critics whine that the poor Sunni Arabs aren't ready. The truth is that the Sunni Arabs, who benefited under Saddam at the expense of the majority Shi'a and the Kurds, will never admit that they're ready for elections. Elections mean they lose.
I am continually amazed that the progressive elements of our society continue to wring their hands over the fate of the neck-stompers of the last four centuries of Sunni rule and three decades of Saddam's gentle mercies to the non-Sunnis. How can so much ink be spilled defending those who spill so much blood to this very day? How twisted can their thinking be that they reflexively defend the Baathist thugs?
And what would we get if we delayed the elections? Do the proponents of delay think the voter turnout would be 20% greater? Ten? One? Indeed, do they even care about what the result would be other than being represented as a defeat for the US?
This is what we could expect from delay:
The issue the critics avoid like a leper's kiss is that any delay would hand the terrorists a victory. Wringing their hands about the level of violence in Iraq, democracy's opponents on the Upper West Side insist that voting requires higher levels of security.
Do they imagine that an election delay would make the violence subside? On the contrary, the terrorists and insurgents would believe — rightly — that they had triumphed. Attacks would increase, more recruits would flock to terror's cause (everybody loves a winner), and democracy would recede beyond the far horizon.
Having set the date we must proceed. And if it isn't perfect? Well the next one will be better. And the one after that even better. We sure know that the election will be better than any of the sham elections in Saddam's Iraq and will be better than any other election held in the Arab world. The only election to come close is the recently held Palestinian election.
Why Americans would support a delay when it so clearly would bolster the enemy is beyond me.
No delay. Vote at the end of the month. The Sunni resistance is doomed and there is no reason to throw it a lifeline.
