Birthing democracy, one dead Iraqi at a time.

Whew boy, here we go again. Ever notice how so many of Third World budding democracies have the same problem? I'm talking about their inability to hold an election without the losers challenging its outcome because they can't accept the fact they lost.

I confess, I really have no idea why this is. Perhaps backwards tribal people of poor Third World nations--unaccustomed as they are to the freedoms just waiting to be bestowed them as soon as they learn to accept majority rule like we civilized folks--should look no farther than the gleamin'est example of democracy on Earth. I'm talking about we lucky Americans who, by the way, set a self-righteously high bar for all others to clear.

It's Iraq's election this past week that made me sit up and notice. Sunnis claim fraud that Shiites enjoyed such success. Voter fraud, or just Sunni sour grapes? And the Kurds? Well, actually, they don't give a shit. It's practically a given they'll inevitably split from the rest of this neocon charade of some higher purpose in Iraq than a U.S. strategic power grab for influence and the area's oil.

But if a true democratic society is to succeed in Iraq and grow among its surrounding neighbors in a kind of revisionist neocon reverse "domino theory", spreading democracies throughout the Middle East (not unlike our Vietnamese misadventurism of the 60's and 70's that killed 58,000 Americans but successfully halted the spread of Communism throughout southeast Asia) , it's a prerequisite losers shut the hell up and accept their election results, that they lost. Unfortunately, that's not happening in Iraq and I'm sure that's to the consternation of president Bush's nation "building" administration.

Maybe people in Iraq, unlike we in the States, haven't the plentiful distractions we enjoy here in a mature democracy. Iraqi concerns are more urgent and immediate, like for food and drinking water. Without reliable electricity, summer heat becomes unbearable and winter cold as bitter as Iraqi resentments. I'm sure these are a few of the dissatisfactions seething just beneath the surface of their new found liberties.

So I try to imagine living in my home with no roof, a missing bath and bedroom, sending my kids off to a school that stands impartially erect as testament to the power of aerial bombing. It's just blocks down a street terrifying insecure, cratered from detonated explosive devices. The hospital's been gutted along with most of the infrastructure.

Maybe it's the Iraqi's reality that helps make 'em so edgy about the election. Makes 'em question its results. After all, just about everything that's brought them to this point was dishonest and questionable.

TV for a few spotty hours per day leaves most without the distractions of reality shows and "Survivor". Iraqis who have managed to survive, are living it! Their reality is their distraction.

So no wonder Iraqis are so skeptical of election outcomes. Without the ammenities we, of higher civilizations enjoy, elections and the impact they have on their lives are far more important than here in the U.S. This probably explains Iraqi reluctance to accept widespread voter suppression and intimidation, if not downright fraud. Obviously, they're taking their new found political freedom too seriously!

I think Iraqis need to learn, as we in the U.S. so amply demonstrated in our 2000 and 2004 national elections, to "acquiesce". As demonstrated in last years election, suspicious voting incongruities in Florida, Ohio, New Mexico and elsewhere went unchallenged, demonstrating once more, American's bountiful ability to acquiesce. It's that admirable quality we posess that allows "democracy" to continue and flourish unquestioningly.

As pointed out by Ananya Mukherjee Reed after last year's election in "Third World Chicanery and First World Quiescence" (CommonDreams.org, Nov. 26, 2004), Americans don't care where post election leadership was in the face of questionable voting tactics. Most have food, water, and shelter. And they have their distractions like bowl games, Christmas shopping and reality that comes through their TV. It's different than Iraqi reality that's something outside a curtain of a front door or just overhead beyond the missing roof.

And besides, as we here are so continuously reminded since 9/11, of course, civil disobedience and peaceful protest over some suspicious election results are out of the question. Such reactions are just sour grapes. They're unacceptable and totally unpatriotic.

Perhaps Iraqi expectations of democracy are a bit misguided and naive. But maybe real democracy will be realized when Iraqis enjoy the stability of the staples of day-to-day living, of schools, hospitals, and an infrastructure, all just a few blocks down safe and secure streets.

Maybe when Iraqis are no longer thirsty, hungry, fearful, and find themselves living in comfort, sated with the latest episodes of Oprah and "Survivor"-type distractions on the tube, they will learn the true underlying quality of modern democracy as enjoyed by their American god parents. Maybe they'll then learn to accept any election outcome as we do. It's that admirable American quality of being quiescent.