Some otherwise loquacious Americans aren’t talking about Sunday’s successful election in Iraq.
As the Washington Times notes, harsh critics of the Bush administration’s push to hold elections on time aren’t commenting:
“Asked whether the Carter Center had a comment on the election, spokeswoman Kay Torrance said: ‘We wouldn’t have any ‘yea’ or ‘nay’ statement on Iraq.’
“[Former President Jimmy] Carter told NBC’s ’Today’ show in September that he was confident the elections would not take place. ’I personally do not believe they’re going to be ready for the election in January … because there’s no security there,’ he said.
“Mr. Soros, the Open Society Institute founder who contributed millions of dollars to groups seeking to prevent Mr. Bush’s re-election, had denounced as a ‘sham’ the administration’s plans for a democratic Iraq.
“’To claim that we are invading Iraq for the sake of establishing democracy is a sham, and the rest of the world sees it as such,’ Mr. Soros said in a Washington speech in March 2003, adding that ’the trouble goes much deeper.’
“’It is not merely that the Bush administration’s policies may be wrong, it is that they are wrong,’ Mr. Soros said in the speech. ’Because we are unquestionably the most powerful, [the Bush administration claims] we have earned the right to impose our will on the rest of the world.’
“Mr. Soros’ Web site (www.georgesoros.com) has no reference to the Iraqi elections. Its latest comments are in a Jan. 26 op-ed article on what Mr. Soros calls Mr. Bush’s ’ambitious’ second inaugural address….”
Enjoy the silence. It won’t last long.