Iraq Election: The Divide Remains

Maybe I'm way late writing this entry, but I was kinda waiting to see how things would shake out.

And shake out, things have. The elections in Iraq were definitely a victory not just fot the Iraqi people, but for the embattled Bush administration.

Not only that, but the outcome -- the ascention of a party that is highly sympathetic to Iran and not really all that cozy with Bush -- merely confirms and solidifies that victory.

Though I have gone from supporting the war two years ago (back when I thought the CIA had to be sitting on a smoking gun regarding hidden weapons) to strongly disagreeing with it after it was obvious there were no weapons, I freely applaud the recent elections as a positive development.

That said, it appears that quite a few Americans are having trouble even figuring out how to digest this turn of events.

To me, articles like that cement something I've been saying over and over again: Bush's presidency has so divided the United States that people can't even begin to discuss or admit when their opposition accomplishes something positive. Neither hardcore Republicans nor hardcore Democrats seem to do so. There is simply too much animosity on both sides -- so much so that both have become blind.

As I said before, staunch Bush supporters seem to be dismissive or outright in denial about the man's flaws as a president (and his unusual fixation with the Middle East, to the near-exclusion of the rest of the planet's violence problems). By the same token, extreme democrats are similarly blind or outright in denial about any shred of positivity Bush has created. The Iraq elections serve as a perfect example of this. [By the way, I stand by everything I said at the time.]

Have we really come to this? And is there any turning back? We can only hope and pray that somehow, someone comes along four years from now that will actually unite the populace rather than splitting it down the middle.

But in the meantime, we can be happy about any positive news coming out of Iraq.  And we can hope that -- despite historical precedent -- an invading country can actually establish a fair and just government from the outside.

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