Dennis Byrne on Iraq's Elections

Dennis Byrne at the Chicago Tribune has a great column in today's paper about the upcoming Iraqi parlimentary elections, and some correlations to elections, Chicago style. He wonders where the "the next election in Iraq will be a failure" crowd is, and compares the supposed abuses in Iraq's elections to the standard operating procedure in Chicago elections.

The best lines from his column follow, and point out something that needs to be pointed out over and over again (emphasis mine):

The point? The heroic Iraqi citizens have traveled a more dangerous road toward democracy more rapidly then anyone ever expected, making that another part of the "failed war plan," I assume. Can we agree that it's great for Iraq,the Middle East and for us? Or perhaps you can't share this enthusiasm because you hate the Bushies so much that a part of you hopes the elections fail.

And his closing line is even better, and takes a good swipe at some folks who require one:

Understand, I'm not saying that abandoning the Iraqis now is
unpatriotic. Just mistaken and an unconscionable betrayal.

I think that about sums up the situation over there, concerning the elections, and our "cut and run" crowd at home.

Don Surber has a great post on the idea of war for politics in his article on Tom Daschle voting for the war to get votes.