Nimrod?
I pray that most of the candidates have the best interests of the Iraqi people at heart and that they can forge a representative government employed BY the people and FOR them.
The platforms all support:
*Creating a democratic, egalitarian, and federal system of government that guarantees the political freedoms of the various ethnic and religious groups.
*Ending the occupation (with various degrees of urgency).
*Building a strong but non-political army that protects the country's borders.
*Preserving the Arab-Muslim identity of the country.
*Putting an end to terrorism.
*Supporting a bigger role for women in politics.
*Assuring non-intervention in the internal affairs of other countries.
*Addressing economic reconstruction with various degrees of specificity and detail.
*Fighting growing corruption in government.
[end snip]
Wow -- this list of priorities strikes me as being incredibly sensible and healthy, especially for a nation just emerging from years of darkness under Saddam. There's no way these kinds of democratic, egalitarian ideas could just spring forth fully formed and become popular with the people in the short period since Saddam was deposed. These ideas must have been simmering just beneath the surface for decades. Someone was keeping the flame, so to speak. The Iraqi expatriate community had been urging for years that Saddam be overthrown, saying that Iraq wanted its freedom and would be ready for it. Maybe they were right. On the day before the elections, I'm trying to keep my expectations under control, but wow, this kind of stuff is encouraging.