QandO: Maybe they'll vote for Buchanan

January 27, 2004

Maybe they'll vote for Buchanan
Posted by Jon Henke

The UN is being called in to do what the UN is qualified to do....

Secretary General Kofi Annan agreed today to send United Nations elections experts to Iraq in an effort to help end the stalemate over how to turn over authority to an Iraqi-led government.

"I have concluded that the United Nations can play a constructive role in helping to break the current impasse," Mr. Annan said in a statement released in Paris, where he is in the midst of a European trip.

It seems to me that the electoral problems in Iraq are very fixable. The sticking point seems to be the date - a July 30 turnover - a date of our choosing. The factions break down as follows...

The American plan is a complex one, based on caucuses in all 18 Iraqi provinces aimed at selecting an assembly that will in turn choose an interim government by July.

The plan ran into opposition from Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the top spiritual leader of the majority Shiite Muslims, who contended it did not promise a representative government and insisted instead on direct elections.

Individual members of the Iraqi Governing Council have proposed an alternative method that would expand their numbers from the current 25 to 125 and keep them in power as the new sovereign government.

The Iraqi Governing Council method seems pretty clear - "we want to be in the new government". I don't see that it serves any long term interests but their own, although it might have short term benefits.

A direct election seems like the ideal choice, but US officials say "direct elections are impossible to organize in the short time available". Meanwhile, Sistani disagrees, but indicates that he would accept caucuses if they were supported by the United Nations.

So, if the "short time" is the problem, why not just extend it a bit? Well, the Iraqis want to be in control as soon as possible....and we seem to want out as soon as possible. Not entirely incorrectly, I'd add, since the transition to Iraqi control is vital...provided they can maintain stability and a basic respect for their Constitution.

....but I can't help but wonder if the July 30 date is more practical or politically motivated. After all, it's conveniently located one month prior to the Republican National Convention. That'll make for a fine item on which he can grandstand, won't it?

As I've said often, the trick is to build the democratic structure from the individual UP to the State - to turn over local control prior to national control. In such a short time, the administration is right...it's not possible. But we could withdraw control just as quickly, by withdrawing our intervention to the limited central government, and turning over local control - the government that people actually see - to the Iraqis first.

I'm optimistic that democracy will work in Iraq....but we're not doing all we could to help it work.

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