Juan Cole's Anti-War View Gives Two Thumbs Down On Iraq Vote

As a representative of the left-wing, anti-war branch of the Democratic Party, University of Michigan professor Juan Cole is always good for a quote.

His posting on today's historic Iraqi elections has, as usual, hit gold.

The LA Times probably reflects the thinking of a lot of Americans in hoping that these elections are a milestone on the way to withdrawing US troops from Iraq. I cannot imagine why anyone thinks that. The Iraqi "government" is a failed state. Virtually no order it gives has any likelihood of being implemented. It has no army to speak of and cannot control the country. Its parliamentarians are attacked and sometimes killed with impunity. Its oil pipelines are routinely bombed, depriving it of desperately needed income. It faces a powerful guerrilla movement that is wholly uninterested in the results of elections and just wants to overthrow the new order. Elections are unlikely to change any of this.

Hey, it's possible he'll turn out to be right. In fact, I'm sure he was right about something once...a long time ago...but I can't remember what it was....

In any case, Protein Wisdom has a rundown on what the anti-war blogs are saying about the Iraq elections today....the answer? Not much. Surprise.