Well, I didn’t agree with the war (and never will), and it’s going to be bloody and costly beyond our imagining. But it is heartening to see high voter turnout for their first democratic election in decades.

As Alexander Hamilton once said (don’t worry, I had to look up who to attribute it to as well), the “masses are asses”. As Ian and I witnessed at our last HOA meeting, true unbridled democracy is chaos. But, until a better system comes along, representative democracy is fairly decent, stable, and responsive. For such a system to not become corrupt or unbalanced does require the populace to be educated and well-informed. Iraq does not have the infrastructure yet to support widespread higher education nor the stability to focus on socio-political issues (hard to focus on civil rights when you’re worried about getting blown up). But, perhaps the new democratic government will last long enough for continued humanitarian efforts to improve the country.

Anyway, before I turn negative on the whole thing (too late!), here’s Kudos to a new democracy in the world.

Yahoo! News - Iraqi Voters Stream to Polls; 33 Die in Attacks