Question Details	Asked By	Asked On
Iraq Elections	Choux	01/08/05
Yesterday on cable news, I saw a story that in some parts of Iraq it is too dangerous to have elections. We have been in Iraq for, how long now, and now we have to face the fact that the War was a terrible idea for all the reasons we see on the news every day. But, mostly because the leaders(Neo-Cons) engaged in "wishful thinking" on what would happen in an occupied Iraq. Do you think that we will be there another twenty years, or so?
Answered By		Answered On
tomder55		01/09/05
We held elections in 1864 when 1/2 of the nation was too dangerous.In his debate with Edwards Cheney cited that El Salvador held elections even while a guerilla insurgency held 1/3 of the terrain.Elections should proceed on schedule. Probably they will set aside seats in the government(which will only be a temporary one designed to design a permanent constitution ;with further elections scheduled for later this year)for the Sunni segments.Still they represent a small minority ,and most likely the slate of candidates endorsed by Sistani will seat the largest contingent (they include btw. Ahmend Chalibi .Like it or not the U.S. will have to deal with him ;word to the State Dept. I contend that the biggest problem has been that the Neo-Con plan was not followed . That was (as I documented before ) a quick in ,to remove Saddam , and a hand over of power to the INC and other exile groups . That is in the past .It was a mistake to remain occupiers ;and to delay handover by appointing Viceroy Bremer et al. ;We move on . In spite of everyone's fears od Shia majority rule ,there is no plans of setting up a theocracy. Sistani doesn't want it and he has surrounded himself with people who do not want it . Chalabi said this week ; "First, we do not want any interference in the Iraqi elections; second, the alliance is not about an Islamic republic or a theocratic state, it is about democracy and pluralism, and third, we will need American forces to be in Iraq for the foreseeable future." The Iranian leaders accepted these points, he said. "They understand that the situation in Iraq is very different from Iran," he said. I believe we will be there for a long time with Iraqi approval in bases outside of urban areas . We need to be there ;not for the long term security of Iraq (they will assume security when they have a legimate government);but as a forward base to deal with other long term security issues (post WWII comes to mind with forward basing in West Europe ;S.Korea;the Fillipines Subic Bay and bases in Okinawa ). Those who do not think we need to be in the region ignore the past reality that we have had boots on the ground since 1990 ,and that our fleet has kept the free flow of commerce open for many years before .

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