The funniest description I have read of the electoral process in Iraq is the one made by General David Petraeus, Commander of US Central Command, who was responsible for the operations of coalition forces in Iraq in their most delicate phase, the years 2007 and 2008. Petraeus said that the most appropriate term to refer to this process would be that of “Iraqracy” rather than democracy, pointing to the fact that Iraq's political system is developing unique properties for itself that have nothing to do with the democracy which had been the initial plan prepared by former President George Bush and his aides to be exported to Baghdad. With experience the Americans discovered that this democratic substance was unfit for export to Iraq in the form it takes in Washington, Paris, London and others. Neither Iraq's soil was ready, after the destruction it had suffered as a result of Saddam Hussein's practices and the years of sanctions and embargo which had come at a high cost for Iraq, nor did its social fabric ensure a political process which Iraqi would meet over on the basis of shared identity, far from sectarian and tribal alignments. Evidently, any democratic process that deserves to be called so must rely on the standard of the loyalty of voters to one nation in order to produce the correctly representative system expected of it. This flaw in national loyalty blatantly expressed itself in the elections that were held in December 2005 and were almost completely boycotted by Iraqi Sunnis. Indeed, the reversal caused by the fall of Saddam was difficult to stomach, not to mention that the phase that followed and the figures who monopolized decision-making then did not comply with the standard of national unity which was necessary to reestablish Iraq as a strong, unified and …Arab country. In fact, one could say that many of those leading figures excessively practiced fragmentation policies and took decisions of a denominational and sectarian character. The current elections are, unlike the previous time, witnessing broad Sunni participation, and in fact most lists include a mix of sectarian identities. Thus, Sheikh Hamid Al-Hais, head of the Anbar Salvation Council, for example, is running as candidate on the list of the Iraqi National Alliance, comprised mostly of Shiites. Moreover, the decisions of the Accountability and Justice Commission that aroused widespread controversy did not prevent the participation of figures such as Saleh Al-Mutlaq, even if indirectly, to the point that it was said that these decisions could contribute to improving chances for this list, which includes representatives of Mutlaq alongside Vice President Tariq Al-Hashimi and former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi. American magazine Newsweek based one of its articles, which made the cover of its latest issue, on these trans-sectarian electoral alliances, considering them to represent the “rebirth of a nation”, as in the article's title. There is certainly a great deal of optimistic exaggeration behind such words, which can be explained by the efforts of President Obama's administration (the magazine being close to his policies) to make the most out of any hint of success from the Iraqi experience, at a time when it is preparing to withdraw the greater part of its troops, as after next April not more than 50 thousand soldiers will remain in Iraq. Increasing the exaggeration even further is the conclusion reached by the sober-minded magazine, considering the current elections in Iraq to be a decisive event, one that could represent a new era in the history of the Middle East, known for the absence of democracy in most of its countries. It is certainly an important stage in the history of Iraq, which is preparing to recover its full sovereignty, not just in terms of politics, but also of security. As for saying that it is a shining beacon on the path to stimulating democracy in the Middle East, that is a tremendous test which the Iraqis themselves have no ambition of waging.
