"...before reading too much into these two speeches, a cautionary note is in order. Like his role model, Ronald Reagan, this President Bush is convinced by the power of “big ideas” to transform, not reality, but public opinion."

"The new Iraqi governing council will face the enormous challenge not only of writing a Constitution but organizing themselves to govern the country until the end of 2005. At the same time, however, they must take steps to bring their divided and wounded country together and find a way to remove the US presence as a target of opportunity for elements of the insurgency."

This is a festival, a farce that’s been held to validate the American-British invasion and occupation of Iraq. But it will not validate it, neither in the eyes of the world opinion, nor, more importantly, in the eyes of…Iraqis…”
--British MP George Galloway

"Military power has a way of creating some political constituencies for itself. And that is certainly true of the Pentagon’s massive footprint in Iraq, where the Jan. 30 voting was part of a mystified process -- with a U.S.-selected election commission and ground rules that kept candidates’ political stances, and even their names, mostly secret from the voters. In the coming months, the potential for a disconnect between voters and the policies of the new government’s leaders is enormous."

"...that might explain why so many Democratic elections in the United States are fraught with corruption, or just stolen. Why should the new Iraq be any different?"

"Of the estimated 350,000 Iraqi Americans, less than one-third are immigrants from Iraq. Most are either children of immigrants or second generation Americans."

"Now the media buzz about the election in Iraq has turned into a siren. The sincerity and courage of many millions of Iraqi people is beyond dispute; no one should doubt their willingness to take risks for democracy. But under the occupation circumstances, the electoral process is highly dubious at best. Whether in peacetime Florida or wartime Iraq, it’s not too difficult to steal an election."

"These days, nearly every talk show host on an American network competes to outdo the other in how racist they can be in vilifying minorities, especially Arabs and Muslims."