There’s a new election on Sunday in Iraq.
Al Jazeera has this article up on the “feel” of people there. (the bold is mine)
Despite shortcomings, misgivings and failures of the political structure established post-2003, it seems that most Iraqi factions have finally become resigned to the fact that this is as good as it gets.
In other words, its like the day you realize you’re over 40 (or 30 or 20 or 60 whenever it hit you) and there’s no point waiting for x,y,z because, you’re all grown up now. It’s time to make your own life.
Good for them! I wish them well.
Here’s the end of the article in case you don’t click through for the whole thing.
Iraqis determined
However, it the most likely significant change to emerge from the elections is the transformation of the overall mood and outlook of the Iraqi people themselves.
Walk the streets of Baghdad, Basra and Mosul and you get a strange sense of determination despite scant public confidence in the political hierarchy or the system that was gradually but almost forcefully imposed upon them since 2003.
The determination lies in the realisation that few nations throughout the world could have survived the trials and tribulations of the past seven years intact; yet the Iraqis, through providence or an indomitable stubbornness, have done just that.
In fact they have lived through nearly four decades of such difficulties even prior to the US-led invasion in 2003. The miserable conditions they have endured continue to persist, but what has changed is that whatever faith was placed in the new rulers or their agents in Iraq has now shifted inward.
There are signs of the re-emergence of that distinguished national spirit which many suspected had become irreparable when Iraq appeared on the verge of civil war in 2006.
The overall voter turnout this weekend might even exceed the expected average of 55-58 per cent.
Most will confess that they vote not in hope that the newly elected will bring about a transformation of fortunes, but rather in resignation that this is yet another tired process they have to endure in their struggle to regain their self-worth, dignity and freedom.
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