US 'Scrutinizes' Iraqi Elections After Two Decades of Democracy Building
The mainstream media breathlessly covers Iraqi elections, highlighting 'scrutiny' from Washington and Tehran. Conveniently omitted is the historical context: the US spent trillions and thousands of lives 'bringing democracy' to Iraq after the 2003 invasion. Yet, twenty years later, the focus is still on how much 'influence' external actors, particularly Iran, might wield. It’s almost as if the
architects of 'regime change' are perpetually surprised when a sovereign nation seeks to define its own path, or that power vacuums get filled. The media framing implies Iraqi elections are only legitimate if they align with US strategic interests (and not Iran's). This 'scrutiny' (read: paternalistic oversight) from Washington consistently overshadows the autonomy of the Iraqi people, whose
agency seems to vanish whenever the US media needs to justify its ongoing geopolitical maneuvering. One might ask, how many 'nation-building' failures does it take before we question the builders?