Yesterday’s ruling by an Iraqi court had already destroyed what little plurality the Iraqiya party had won in the March 7 election, but the Justice and Accountability Commission (JAC) in looking to cut even deeper into this, as commission leader Ali al-Lami expects a ruling in the next few days on his effort to ban nine more winning MPs.
Al-Lami failed to win a seat of his own in the election (ally Ahmed Chalabi won the only seat in his party), but retains enormous power by way of his ability to oust candidates and even victorious MPs over claims of past Ba’ath Party membership.
The exact party constitution of the nine MPs facing ban now was not revealed, but is widely believed to be almost exclusively members of Iraqiya, as JAC’s previous bannings have centered nearly exclusively around the secular bloc’s Sunni members.
Ahead of the election, JAC banned several hundred candidates on the basis of these claims. Though the candidates retained a legal right to challenge the ban, the election commission refused to consider virtually every challenge, claiming the paperwork was improperly filed.
The results of the election were initially 91 seats for Iraqiya, 89 for State of Law, and 70 for the Iraqi National Alliance (INA). Iraqiya has already lost two seats to yesterday’s court ruling however, and at least one other member is being held by the government for undisclosed reasons. The State of Law has also predicted it will take seats from Iraqiya in the Baghdad recount, and the JAC has suggested Iraqiya’s lost seats could be given to State of Law or the INA through convoluted formulas. The final seat count thus might not be clear for further weeks or even months.
Note a trend here. Elections in Afghanistan that were as crooked as a $3 bill. And elections in Honduras held at gun-point under martial law while terror squads attack the opposition.
If our tax dollars and our blood are going to be spent making the world safe for democracy, then shouldn't we at least get real democracies for what we spend?
You spot a democracy by one fact. Power belongs to the people.
Of course, American elections have been rigged and controlled for so long that its unlikely that any American politicians would know a real democracy if it bit them in the rear. Think about it … Chicago has been under the rule of the Daley family for all of Obama's lifetime. So what is a young lawyer from Chicago likely to know about real democracy? Probably about as much as the son of a former CIA director.
According to antiwar.com, we've lost the lives of 4393 Americans in order to make these elections possible. That doesn't include the wounded and the maimed. It doesn't include those who come back damaged with stress disorders. It doesn't include the suicides that occur once the soldiers come home. That doesn't include the families destroyed while soldiers stay overseas fighting for democracy.
Did we get what we paid for? Was this worth the cost?
Elections, Chicago-style …..
Step1 … ban many of the opposition candidates before the election
Step 2 … widespread reports of irregularities on election day
Step 3 … long delays in announcing election results … maybe while the numbers were tweaked
Step 4 … government still loses despite all of the above
Step 5 … so, now start retroactively start disqualifying candidates who won.
Step 6 … proclaim a victory for democracy that's worth the lives of more Americans than died on 9/11
The Daley's would be so proud.