The Arab cable TV involved the region's inhabitants in the Iraqi elections. They followed them, predicted, wagered, and learned. These elections seemed like a training session in a region that cannot be accused of its passion for or practice of democracy. Such interest is not unusual, as the Iraqi elections constitute a precedent. For the first time, the ballot boxes are opened in a prominent Arab country, and the results cannot be predicted or predetermined. Elections in our countries often turn into a quasi-referendum with guaranteed results, with the voters' task being to support the program that was prepared on their behalf and the formation that was cooked in their absence. Moreover, Iraqi elections have their particularity: the occupation promised to leave after it felt burdened by the costs of the adventure. This means that the results of the elections must empower Iraqis to retrieve their country – not just from occupation, but also from the incoming mobile fighters who considered Iraq to be nothing more than an arena for conflicts. The same applies to militias, which perpetrated practices similar to those of the regime whose demise they celebrated. It is a great test for Iraqis. Gone are the times when the country used to live in the grasp of a single man and a single party; a leader who is delegated by history, not ballot boxes, and who practices this delegation through approximation, alienation, deletion and elimination; a single leader who is the single voter. His will is above the Constitution and the institutions. Objecting to it implies treason, or in other words killing, suicide, or exile if possible. It is not an easy test. Saddam Hussein's regime did not fall by popular upheaval or a military coup. It fell at the hands of the US military machine. And the country woke up to the decision of dissolving the army, drowned amidst the practices of mobile fighters, and slipped towards sectarian violence. Enshrining democracy on that rubble is no ordinary or simple task. We also have to keep in mind that those dueling today through ballot boxes are training for a new dance. Democracy was not the first item on their program the day they fled Saddam's violence. The first item was to eliminate Saddam. Also, the parties and factions they joined were not fans of ballot boxes. The capitals that welcomed or sponsored them do not like democracy either, and mostly publically or secretly consider it a strange concept. The dance of democracy is not an easy one. It has its economic, political and cultural conditions. There is also the climate and the accumulations. It is more difficult for someone coming from a place that monopolizes the truth while his effective program is to impose it on the others, and to consider the elections as an opportunity for this imposition for lack of other decisive means. Hence, trainings seemed difficult. There is bound to be an agreement with people from another sect with other inclinations. There is bound to be some training for accepting the other and searching for common grounds with him. Sometimes, dancing at an advanced age with a dried up body seems to be an exhausting process. Despite this, some positive points must be taken into account. The elections revealed Al Qaeda's lack of attractiveness amidst the Iraqi Sunnis, from whom they attempted to snatch the right of talking in its name. The Sunnis did not go en bloc to the ballot boxes, but were divided into alliances. The same applies to Shias and Kurds. The elections gave the impression that Iraqis wish to retrieve their country from occupation, militias, and the hands of the forces that reserved cards within the “Iraqi Field”. However, the Iraqis should not lose in the test of the government formation the points they achieved through resorting to ballot boxes. This experience is an important training session for Iraqis and the region's inhabitants. It is a session for learning to dance with the other who is different and getting together under the rule of law and institutions. It is obvious that democracy is not summarized by opening ballot boxes. It is also obvious that we need lengthy and painful trainings.
