Sorry, but its not "democracy in action", even though it appears so.
It is the same power-holder struggle, and that struggle springs not from true policy differences or any belief in a "better way", but a desire to obtain the personal and social-group perks of power, power over others (that is all that the entire Middle East Arab political class knows, in every country in the Middle East).
At this point, even the Iraqi "public" has no realization yet of the real power they have been given in Iraq. Their attachments to the candidates have no more true political-philosophy, policy proscription, or values concerning how the government should operate behind them than is believed by the candidates themselves - which is none.
Those attachments are, in true Middle East fashion, fashioned on the belief that "if I side with this guy and he gets power in some fashion then he will be able to get something delivered by some treasury to me, to my group, to "our group". It is the politics of balkinization and constant factionalism endemic to Arab society and played out geopolitically in the fact that every Arab summit statement of "unity" in the entire modern era has, and has had as much value and shelf life as the air with which the words announcing the agreements were spoken. It is all for show and any true "agreements" (which are always behind the scenes) are bought and paid for, and usually in cold hard cash - and are not real actionable demonstrations of Arab "unity".
The Iraqi people and their leaders have been given a chance to rise above the cultural and social deficiencies that have kept the entire Middle East politically and economically underdeveloped. So, far, their leaders have demonstrated they are not up to the task.
Fortunately, the war that is going on to protect those leaders, the war on the ground, the war in small towns and villages all around Iraq continues to demonstrate the willingness of very local leaders to step forward in greater and greater means of assistance to the coalition and Iraqi military forces. That counter-insurgency effort is now, finally, making great success in producing the sense among local leaders that this fight is theirs and they are stepping up to join it and help it succeed for their communities. They may also supply (hopefully in less than a generation) a new-generation of political leaders and political organizations, built like the counter-insurgency program itself - from the ground up. If that were to happen, those leaders would have a chance to change the political landscape in Iraq and demonstrate a path for change to Arabs around the Middle East. Why, because it is at that level, at the local counter-insurgency-fight level (more than the "national" level), that Sunni, Shia and Kurd are forming working coalitions to defeat the terrorists and the sectarian insurgents. New, non-sectarian political organizations could evolve from those associations.
That type of demonstration is not within the capacities of any of the current Iraqi leaders; they are too invested in the political modalities that simply repeat failed cultural templates, and produce new failures.
I lived in Saudi Arabia and studies Islam, the culture and history of the Middle-East. I am no expert, but I think that Islam also inhibits the growth of a free and pluralistic society. It is not impossible, but Islam is in effect their culture. Unlike Western culture, there is little or no civic virtue outside of Islam. Also, there is a sense among the people there that fate (Allah) constantly controls their lives. We believe in free will in the West, they think Allah controls their fate.
Islam is an aggressive faith vis-a-vis other faiths. Most Muslims don’t seek to kill us and convert the world, but a goodly minority does.
Having said all that, I do think that with the election process, and the people having a voice in their leadership, it does require leaders to be concerned for the voters. Compromise will be hard, but some has been made. More must take place to avoid sectarian violence.
Excellent contributions from Wulli and George!
There is obviously a crisis among political leaders in Iraq. They have yet to learn to compromise and work together to achieve the minimum possible. There is this hated habit of ‘pulling out’ every time there is some problem. It seems to be restricted to Arab politics only. Every time some group or party doesn’t like what’s going on, they pull out of the forum they are in, which is totally counter-productive. Prior to this ‘Accord front’ pull out, there was another pull out from what is called ‘Dialogue front’ (funny how they choose their names) which is headed by Salih Mutlig. They said that they will keep away from parliament as long as their demands are not met. They then added that if there is a critical vote in parliament, then they will come back! In other word, they are saying to their follow MPs go ahead on whatever legislation you are working on, but if you deal with something serious, we will come back and screw it up for you! What kind of logic is that?
Yes there is alot of hard work among the military (Iraqis and Americans) and among local leaders. But the politicians in the Green Zone have been a terrible failure (most of them anyway).
I can’t wait for the next election (late 2009 I think) as I am pretty sure that this uselss lot will be swept aside.