Gorbachev Unhappy With Iraq

Mikhail Gorbachev - remember him? He was the ideological heartthrob du jour of the Left for a while there - surveys the Iraqi election results and isn't a happy camper:

Former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev has called the Iraqi parliamentary elections a desecration, according to Moscow News, an English-language sister publication of Gazeta.ru.

[...]

"And even though I am a supporter of elections and of the transfer of power to the people of Iraq, these elections were fake.

"I don't think these elections will be of any use. They may even have a negative impact on the country. Democracy cannot be imposed or strengthened with guns and tanks," Gorbachev said, according to Interfax.

Gorbachev appeared to offer no reason for his assessment, but perhaps his background is reason enough. I've never understood the Western media's affection for the man. He was merely the party apparatchik in charge at the end, the one who tried to "allow" only the teeniest bit of liberty solely to avoid allowing more.

He might still be bitter about the results of his own endeavors; his comments on Iraq seem awfully strong. Maybe he just doesn't wanna redraw the map on his forehead?