Bunker Mulligan "Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry." ~Mark Twain

Michael J. Totten is doing something that will go into future history books. He will be blogging at a new site, Friends of Democracy.

Bookmark it. Blogroll it. Visit it. Daily. Watch history happen.

I was watching The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance this afternoon. It is one of the best of all time. John Wayne. Jimmy Stewart. And Lee Marvin.

As the town of Shinbone holds a meeting to determine their representative at the Statehood Convention, Valance (Marvin) makes it quite clear that anyone who opposes him is putting their life in jeopardy:

“We have declared a fierce war on this evil principle of democracy and those who follow this wrong ideology,” said the speaker, who identified himself as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq. “Anyone who tries to help set up this system is part of it.”

Sorry, I had the movie confused with real life:

The speaker said candidates running in the Jan. 30 elections are “demi-idols” and those who vote for them “are infidels.”

Ransom Stoddard takes a stand against Valance. Will the Iraqis?

I’m betting they will.

If you’ve not taken the time to read through the information on my “Terrorism Essentials” page (linked at the bottom of the left column), you should wander over to read what our friendly Curmudgeon explains.

Trust me.

“What Would Jimmy Do?”

It is probably too early to tell, but based on a WorldNetDaily article, Carter may have had a relationship that is beyond what we have come to expect even from him.

“Did President Carter know he was dealing with an agent of Saddam Hussein or was he just terribly gullible?” asked Morgan. “And if he truly was naïve as to Samir Vincent’s true agenda, then now is the time for him to come forward and repudiate Mr. Vincent and his actions.”

I won’t condemn Carter at this early stage, but his history is certainly one of relationships with despots around the world. That has always seemed odd to me because he is a decent man, and I can’t imagine he would ever want to be a dictator himself. But he really enjoys the company of dictators around the world.

I’ve been a bit busy recently so I haven’t participated in something I initiated–the Homespun Bloggers Symposium. Bad me. This week I definitely need to say something about the topic: What are your predictions for the elections in Iraq? Will there be violence? What will the government look like? Will it be legitimate, liberal, and capable of accomplishing anything? And what effect will the election have on the U.S.?

I’m certainly not prescient, but I felt a strong need to respond to a couple of the points which seemingly come up in every news story about the election.

The election in Iraq is absolutely a benchmark in Middle Eastern government. Not withstanding an election in Afghanistan last year where women, for the first time ever had the opportunity to vote, this one will be for all the marbles. The jihadists know it, and will do what they can to disrupt it. That didn’t happen in Afghanistan, but it most assuredly will in Iraq. It will happen not to keep Iraqis from the polls, but to give news outlets a basis for claiming the election lacks legitimacy. The jihadists know they don’t need to keep the election from happening, they only need to provide rationalization for continuing their fight.

Watch to see if the voting public comes out in greater percentages than ours did in November.

If the Sunni strongmen get their way, few Sunnis will vote. They, and the media, will again claim the vote was illegitimate. Sorry. If you choose not to participate, then you get what you deserve. If the Sunnis want to be part of the government, they better get their candidates out and their voters energized. That isn’t how the game is played in the Arab world, so they don’t grasp participation as a vehicle for governance.

This election is to create a new assembly which will begin the work of writing a constitution. Once it is ratified, there will be new elections based on the procedures laid out, and that election will be this time next year. One Year. Ours wasn’t comlete and ratified until more than a decade after the Declaration of Independence. Fortunately, the Iraqis have several examples to follow, including ours.

The election will mean nothing here in the US. Those of us cheering for the Iraqis will still be in conflict with those cheering against. A succesful election will only make them more shrill as they try to find a way to claim its irrelevance.

Who could have imagined even three years ago open elections in Iraq, or any other Arab country? Will the world applaud them, or criticize? I think we can at least predict that.