That's a rather naive proposal, it presumes that whether we support more fake elections or not will have an impact on US occupation or the conditions of occupation.
"We should stand for more and better elections, not fewer. "
We should stand for the end of an illegal occupation. More and better elections under conditions of US occupation are, in a nutshell, wishful thinking.
"If we merely write off yesterday's vote as only potemkin or charade elections we take ourselves out of any serious debate and we degrade the legitimate aspirations of the Iraqi people. "
No, actually what we do is provide clarity about reality on the ground as opposed to wishful thinking about a humane US occupation.
"Likewise, some on the anti-war left are making an equal error by writing off Sunday’s voting as a “charade” a “farce” or as “so-called” elections. "
Calling the elections what they were is not a disservice to anyone. Mind you, Marc was perfectly happy to call the plebiscite in Venezuela a farce only a month ago or so. Now, compared to the Iraqi 'election', the pleb in Venezuela was radical democracy I'm afraid. To put it mildly, Cooper has a double standard on criticising elections as farcical.
"We need to find a way to escalate the politics and reduce the bloodshed and simplistic nostrums from triumphalist on the one side or Leftish isolationists on the other will not cut the mustard. We owe a more sober response to the Iraqi people."
This is Cooper at his best, carricaturing the left, unaware of the call by most leftists who want the US to leave Iraq now for the US to pay full and meaningful reparations to Iraq. That, I'm afraid, although evidently Cooper is unaware of it, is the *opposite* of isoloationism.