At a meeting with congressional Republicans today, President Bush... "talked about 'time to take the training wheels off,' " said Rep. Deborah Pryce, R-Ohio. "The Iraqi people have been in training, and now it's time for them to take the bike and go forward."
"Bush rallies Hill Republicans"
Ed Henry, CNN
May 20, 2004
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"Statesmen around the world stare grimly at a series of election deadlines, and gradual transfer of sovereignty, for both Iraq and Afghanistan....
"Like a pair of nervous parents who must teach their child to ride a bicycle, these men and women watch fretfully as the 4-year-old teeters and totters. They dash along, never ungripping the bars, agreeing all the way that, "whatever else happens, we musn't let little Pat fall down." The result, of course, is that the child doesn't learn how to ride. Yet the date by which he must ride inches forward, inexorably and menacingly.
"The answer to this problem, paradoxically, is not to grunt and puzzle and struggle over how to hold a perfect, indellible, everlasting election, singular -- but rather, to constantly be holding frequent votes, referenda, and consultations, all imperfect and messy, but in any case, elections, plural...
"In short: Hang aroud, let the child skin a knee or two, but for heaven's sake, get her or him riding that bicycle as often as possible.... Better ride-fall-down, ride-wobble, ride-stand-up -- than never-ride, never-ride, fall-down-anyway."
Gregory Fossedal
"Afghanistan, Iraqistan: Answer, Electionsstan"
United Press International
March 31, 2004
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"Democracy is breaking out all over -- they're having local elections in many places.... building up experience."
Andrew Card
CNBC
May 28, 2004
"Now... the Administration needs to think about moving those elections forward -- to give the Iraqi people a sense of participation, a sense that they're really building a democracy... Instead, what we have is, this group that will be appointed by the U.N."
William Kristol
Paula Zahn, CNN, May 14, 2004
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"Conducting an ongoing series of consultative votes, on matters ranging from the structure of interim governance to the ownership and administration of Iraq's oil, would have its dangers. Then again, there are dangers in not consulting the Iraqi people.
"Consider the alternatives. One is for the United States to anoint, however indirectly, a set of Iraqi leaders who are presumed to have legitimacy with the masses. Another is for the United States, in whatever combination with coalition partners and the United Nations, to administer matters and oversee the process itself."
Gregory Fossedal
Legal Times
February 27, 2003 |
"If there were to be an area where the extremists focused during the
election period, and an election was not possible in that area at
that time, so be it. You have the rest of the election and you go
on. Life's not perfect," Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services
Committee (news - web sites).
Rumsfeld testified just hours after Iraqi interim Prime Minister
Iyad Allawi and President Bush (news - web sites) both insisted
national elections would be held on schedule in January despite the
flaring insurgency.
But the Pentagon (news - web sites) chief said there could be a
situation where an election could be held in "three-quarters or
four-fifths of the country. But in some places you couldn't because
the violence was too great."
Donald Rumsfeld
Congressional testimony
September 23, 2004
Reuters wire service report
(See also Hussain Shahristani,
"Election Fever," The Wall Street Journal, April 29, 2004.)
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"It is more fair to allow any state, region, or person to practice democracy as soon as it or she or he can -- and, more practical. The growth of democracy in one part of the country, or of the whole country over some particular issue, speeds up the development of the rest.
"Surely, Afghanistan and Iraq would be better off if say, one-third of the country had managed to hold some votes by April, with another one-third planning them for May or June, and others struggling on for fall -- learning, meanwhile, from their countrymen's example.
"The demand of elitists and anti-democrat cavillers that these countries be beamed directly to 100 percent, or remain at 0 percent, guarantees they will never leave ground zero."
Gregory Fossedal
"Afghanistan, Iraqistan: Answer, Electionsstan"
United Press International
March 31, 2004
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"It's not going to be easy -- it's going to be messy. But they ought to be thinking about holding elections sooner rather than later."
William Kristol
Fox News
May 13, 2004
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"The important thing is to begin holding elections soon. It's going to be very messy, but the key date is when democracy begins, not when it is perfected."
Gregory Fossedal
World Business Today
BBC Worldwide Service
February 21, 2003
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"I'm not sure countries like Russia -- let lone Iraq. Where it has succeeded, democracy has been built up over many years of experience and institutions."
Fareed Zakaria
Seattle, WA, April, 2003
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"In the short term, one of the skeptics' concerns is that the Iraqi people have little experience with democracy. Indeed, they do not. Yet direct democracy can give them that experience — almost immediately — and allow a growing measure of participation on questions of current administration and ultimate government creation.
"At the moment, Iraq does not have a highly developed system of political parties, a free press, and other critical institutions. One way of building democracy is to wait for all those things to form before giving people a voice. But it may make more sense to give people a voice now and allow them to form such institutions as they exercise that voice — in effect, a "rolling start" that creates democracy on the move. America didn't have political parties to speak of in 1776 or, for that matter, in 1789, when our constitution was formed.
Gregory Fossedal
Legal Times
February 27, 2003
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