Iraq, for so long a shorthand for everything that can go wrong with U.S. foreign policy, just demonstrated more democratic resilience than its critics give it credit for. Squint hard enough, and you might even see it as the closest thing to a stable, peaceful, and genuinely democratic Arab state.
Americans who haven’t been following Iraq for the past decade might be surprised to learn that the country just conducted a reasonably free, fair, and peaceful election. On Nov. 11, nearly 7,750 candidates competed for 329 parliamentary seats in a contest that, by the troubled standards of the region, went remarkably smoothly. There was no major violence and relatively few allegations of fraud. Despite predictions of record-low participation, election turnout reached 56 percent —comparable to many U.S. presidential elections over the past century.
Americans who haven’t been following Iraq for the past decade might be surprised to learn that the country just conducted a reasonably free, fair, and peaceful election. On Nov. 11, nearly 7,750 candidates competed for 329 parliamentary seats in a contest that, by the troubled standards of the region, went remarkably smoothly. There was no major violence and relatively few allegations of fraud.
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