The January 30 elections in Iraq have nothing to do with democracy. To claim a “free” election can take place in Iraq is no different to asserting that the French, Yugoslav or Greek people could have elected a representative government in 1942 while living under the jackboot of Nazi rule. Over the past two years, Iraq has been subjected to invasion and a military occupation that has plunged the country into a social and political catastrophe. The Bush administration has brought the Iraqi people 50 to 70 percent unemployment, food and fuel shortages, a breakdown in essential services such as electricity, a collapse in basic law-and-order and dictatorial forms of rule little changed from those of the Baathist regime. ... The transitional government that takes office in Baghdad in the aftermath of the ballot should be rejected as illegitimate both in Iraq and throughout the world.

UPDATE: I hope that MS-NBC puts a transcript of this show on its website. Jeralyn Merritt says twice that the casting of ballots doesn't make for legitimate government. Classic comedy from the Left! I can't wait for 2006.

Such a government is possible only when Iraqis have real control over their own future. And that will come only when the United States is gone.

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