Why the left should get real about Iraq

In today’s Observer, Michael Ignatieff, contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and author of 'The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror,' writes passionately in advance of the Iraqi elections. He says “Explaining this morose silence requires understanding how support for Iraqi democracy has become the casualty of the corrosive bitterness that still surrounds the initial decision to go to war. Establishing free institutions in Iraq was the best reason to support the war - now it is the only reason - and for that very reason democracy there has ceased to be a respectable cause.

He adds “Liberals can't bring themselves to support freedom in Iraq lest they seem to collude with neo-conservative bombast. Anti-war ideologues can't support the Iraqis because that would require admitting that positive outcomes can result from bad policies. And then there are the ideological fools in the Arab world, and even a few in the West, who think the 'insurgents' are fighting a just war against US imperialism. This makes you wonder when the left forgot the proper name for people who bomb polling stations, kill election workers and assassinate candidates - fascists.”

We concur, it is time for the left and liberals to get real about what is actually happening in Iraq (GK)