There is good news from Iraq. A lot of Iraqis, mostly Shiites and Kurds, voted in the elections. At the very least that tells us not all Muslims and not all Arabs follow Osama bin Laden. It may have even more hopeful aspects.
This good news, however, doesn’t mean that Iraq is a democracy or will ever become a democracy. Or that the Mideast will become democratic. Or that democratic nations there would be preferable to the current authoritarian regimes. It does not mean that the worst is past in Iraq. Nor that the US will escape Iraq any time soon.
Also, lest we forget - this good news cost a great deal – the lives of almost 1,500 young American soldiers and I don’t know how many thousands of Iraqis (military and civilian both). Billions of dollars, too.
Good news, then, but a flickering light in a very dark cave full of dangerous pitfalls.
Which is what makes Sen. Pete Domenici’s comments on the Iraqi elections so cheap.
"This election is…," he said on the Senate floor, "a great vindication of President Bush’s idea that Iraq, once a danger to the world, would go in the direction of being a peace-loving country."
Now Pete Domenici is nobody’s fool. So that "vindication" statement – so simplistic, glib and arrogant - cannot represent his real understanding of what’s happening.
No, the Senator’s comments are politics as usual. Hardly deserving of any special attention. Except that the front page yesterday of the same issue that reported the Senator’s comments on page D3 told us that another young man from New Mexico kid won’t be coming home.
In that context, I find Domenici’s politicking tawdry.
"St. Pete" indeed.
I wouldn’t spend time on this except that nobody else will.
Watch the editorial and Op Ed pages of our New Mexico newspapers for the next several days. Nobody will hold the Senator to account on the editorial or Op Ed pages.
Such is the nature of the press these days.