[Marxism] 'Guardian' leader backs war, occupation with election seal of approval: "the coalition cannot cut and run"

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

The inevitable post-election prowar "victory" wave in the world liberal
capitalist media is already rolling. Just remember, this too shall pass.
Build the March 19 protests!
Fred Feldman

Democracy must be the winner
The allies must bow to Iraq's wishes

Leader
Sunday January 30, 2005

Observer

The day a nation that has lived for a generation under despotic
repression chooses its leaders is one to celebrate. So today we cheer
Iraq and all those voters who brave death threats to seek out secret
polling stations and exercise the right to vote for a candidate of their
choice. Democracy, albeit falteringly, has arrived. With their
experience of the bogus electoral machinery of dictatorship under Saddam
Hussein, the people of Iraq know the difference between a sham and an
attempt at an honest poll and the evidence is that a majority of Iraq's
people want to vote today. That itself is a triumph.
Certainly, the process is underwritten by an occupying power which many
Iraqis despise. But the intimidation and violence that might prevent a
free vote are the work of criminals and murdering zealots. Even those
angry at the way in which Britain went to war or at the subsequent
prosecution of that war know that there is no moral equivalence between
the occupying coalition and the forces of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the
self-appointed al-Qaeda representative in Iraq who threatens to behead
those attempting to vote.

It already seems certain that the majority Shia community will reverse
its historical subordination to the minority Sunnis, but the danger is
that they may do so disproportionately, since many Sunnis are expected
to boycott the poll. We must hope that, in such a climate, turnout is
sufficiently high to give popular legitimacy to the new assembly.

These seismic shifts of power must avoid sowing new grievances for
future generations and that means generosity from Shias towards their
former rulers and restraint by disenfranchised Sunnis.

Iraqis will live in the shadow of war and occupation for some time yet,
but the allies must avoid tarnishing Baghdad's new administration with
the perceived illegitimacy of the occupation. A new government will
depend on foreign troops for security but it must avoid alienating the
people who have elected it to office, for many of whom the war seems an
act of imperialism. The coalition cannot cut and run, but it can send a
signal that its soldiers stay only at the invitation of a sovereign
Iraqi authority. They must leave if asked to do so. There must be
renewed efforts to involve the international community in Iraq's
transition.

This is not a moment for missionary zeal or blind optimism. But it is a
moment to find hope in small advances and to remember that, despite the
violence, democracy is the aspiration of Iraqis. We are duty-bound to
help bring that about.

Guardian Unlimited C Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005


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