My friend who organized and supervised the elections in the Republic of Serbska and in Pristina is now off to organize the local elections in Iraq scheduled for late next Spring.
My friend is a good reminder to the Nattering Nabobs of Negativity that democracy is possible. He organized elections in one country that never existed before, the Republic of Serbska, and organized elections in another country that was 100% Albanian Muslim and had never had an open election. Both countries held their first elections safely and successfully. Rudimentary democracy is working in both places.
Both former Yugoslavic countries were small and Iraq is big, but Iraq has an electoral history dating back eighty years.