I did a Technorati search, and it seems Jazz is right — as of now the Right Blogosphere is ignoring the unfortunate post-election turmoil in Iraq. After whining at us that we ignored the glorious election, now they’re ignoring the inglorious side-effects of an apparent religious Shiite victory.

Reuters reports renewed violence in Iraq, along with Sunni demands for a do-over election and a boycott of parliament.

On the other hand, some Sunnis are still negotiating for more seats in the new parliament. Not successfully, but they haven’t given up.

I remain skeptical that Iraq or any other non-democratic nation can be forcibly retrofitted with a workable democratic government by outside forces. The argument is that the U.S. turned Japan into a democratic country after World War II; therefore, it should work with Iraq as well. This argument ignores the fact that there are ENORMOUS cultural, sociological, historical, and political differences between post-WWII Japan and current day-Iraq. And (warning: I’m no expert) I understand that the government that emerged in Japan was not as wildly different from what the Japanese were accustomed to as Americans might believe. For centuries under the Shogunate the country was ruled through rigid hierarchy and bureaucratic control, and the emperor was little more than a figurehead. Some argue that’s sorta kinda the way General MacArthur left it in 1949. And Japan had been moving toward democracy on its own in the 1920s before economic and social upheaval shoved it toward militarism. For a time after World War I the nation had a two-party political system and was governed mostly by a prime minister, not the Emperor. Americans have a hazy notion that Japan’s pre-war government was something like a European monarchy and that elections were utterly alien to the Japanese, but this is not so.

So if we eliminate Japan as an example of a new Little Democracy That Could, are there other examples? I can’t think of any.

Also: More on why the “tough on terror” Right is really a pack of weeniebabies. It’s us liberals, not the lefties, who demonstrate real resolve against terrorists.