James A. Baker, III

A manual on how a great power can be Gulliver. Any one seeking a manual on defeatism should go no further than this little tome.

In January 2009 the results of participation in local elections all over Iraq was 51% according to the IHEC, Iraq’s Independent High Electoral Commission. The number of Iraqis who cast their votes 7.5 million. Voting centers in Baghdad and other 13 provinces were ready to receive 15 million eligible voters elected candidates to occupy all 440 seats in local councils.

On the other hand, the closet equivalent to the Iraqi vote, American off-year elections, run around 37%, the "normal" modern midterm voter participation rate. In pointed contrast, the lowest rate--40%--was in Anbar, the Sunni heartland west of Baghdad. The sprawling desert area was dominated in 2005 by al Qaeda in Iraq. Thus, in four years, the Americans succeeded in pushing out AQ in Iraq and Iraqis responded by voting with more confidence and a higher percentage of them voted than the average American.

Apparently the Americans are better at exporting democracy than they are at practicing it.

The defeatism of American leaders would be laughable if it were not so dangerous to American's security to have these people in positions of power. In December 2006, those purveyors of pessimism, The Iraq Study Group, concluded: "The situation in Iraq is grave and deteriorating (p. xiii)." And again they concluded that the situation in Anbar, one of worst four provinces cited, was "highly insecure (p. 6)."… (mais)