Regarding the Iraq elections:

I wish someone would point out that an election is not the secret of a democracy. The secret is that all parties accept the result without armed conflict.

This will not happen in Iraq.

This is like the well-known clich?: “They were married and lived happily ever after.”

This is a “shotgun wedding,” and an election does not make a democracy any more than a wedding produces a happy marriage.

Fred B. Otto

Orono