Gorbachev Calls Iraqi Elections 'Fake'

[CShine]

Looks like he's gonna stir up some trouble.

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev called the Iraqi parliamentary elections a profanation.

In an interview with the Interfax news agency, he said the elections are “very far from what true elections are. And even though I am a supporter of elections and of the transfer of power to the people of Iraq, these elections were fake.”

“I don’t think these elections will be of any use. They may even have a negative impact on the country. Democracy cannot be imposed or strengthened with guns and tanks,” the agency quoted Gorbachev as saying.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry said it respected the results of Iraq’s elections. However, the statement said that it was important for the Iraqi people to acknowledge and accept the poll’s results. Russian President Vladimir Putin also welcomed the parliamentary elections in Iraq, calling it a “step in the right direction” and a “positive event”.

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/01/...cheviraq.shtml

[Mojo_PeiPei]

We should care what some Ex-Commi thinks why? It's pretty recockulous that he is making comments on democracy.

[wnker85]

Russia is about to fall back into the new USSR so I am not to worried.

Plus they're still mad that we took away their oil sorce.

[Mojo_PeiPei]

Originally Posted by wnker85

Russia is about to fall back into the new USSR so I am not to worried.

Plus they're still mad that we took away their oil sorce.

For sure, perhaps he should be more worried about the farce that democracy has become in his native land.

[drakers]

I don't think Gorbachev has any room for talk when Russia is still in great poverty. Yeah I'm against the war we had in Iraq and Bush's policies. But come on, his comment is a little off the wall.

[tecoyah]

hmmmmmmmmm.......I could have sworn it was Ol' Gorby that lead the way to creating democracy in the USSR.......But I could be wrong

[Mojo_PeiPei]

If you call what they have democracy. If I remember correctly he was in power both before and after the soviet collapse.

[JumpinJesus]

Interesting take. Can we assume, then, that this attempt at democracy in Iraq is doomed to failure?

I'm not asking this to be flippant. But, if democracy is imposed on a society, what does it take to make it stick? If Iraq's economy does not support their new-found freedom, will a despot arise to promise salvation? What can Iraq do to ensure that their fledging democracy will survive?

[Mojo_PeiPei]

A despot will not arise anytime soon, there is already too many interests at play, plus at the very least Since Saddam is gone there is a despotic vaccum. The best way to ensure their future is to ensure that all ethnic groups and interests are protected and represented and that a theocracy doesn't emerge.

BTW, I don't think this counts as democracy being imposed, at this point the power is in the hands of the people in Iraq, they just elected delegates to write their constitution, everything is up in the air until december.

I've always loved that guy. I think his statements are dead on.

[roachboy]

short historical memories are at play here again--tecoyah is right---but no matter for american conservatives, it seems. past, present, future: all rhetorical spaces to be filled in with arbitrary assertions.

besides, the content of the election was a priori secondary for the bush administration: all that mattered was and is form. that it happened....or, rather, that something that can be called an election happened, which allows for statements concerning the period before elections and the period after elections, which in turn allows for an illusion of progress. at the level of content, there can be infinite problems and form is still all that matters. no-one could have voted, nothing been decided, and the administration would still say the same thing, because (apparently) the illusion of movement can be substituted for a strategy, the illusion of movement is a strategy.

let's see: no elections monitors.
no real campaign
100 candidates on a ballot, amy of whom had not left their houses for months
the sunni population in the main not voting.

but then again, you have the american way of counting votes, which inflates the percentage that did vote into a representation of the entire population such that, for example in reagans "landslide" 27% of the total registered voters could be understood as an overwhleming majority. which is designed to assure the illusion of movement by not thinking about anything that would run counter to it.

of course, the problem with pointing this out lay with the person who points it out.
qed