Remember when the Iraqis tried to stop fighting and have elections and Bush wouldn't let them?

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http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE2D81138F93AA25755C0A9659C8B63

AFTER THE WAR: OCCUPATION; Iraqis Were Set to Vote, But U.S. Wielded a Veto

Published: June 19, 2003

American marines had built makeshift wooden ballot boxes. An Army reserve unit from Green Bay, Wis., had conducted a voter registration drive. And Iraqi political candidates had blanketed the city with colorful fliers outlining their election platforms -- restore electricity, rehabilitate the old quarter, repave roads.

But last week, L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the American military occupation in Iraq, unilaterally canceled what American officials here said would have been the first such election in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein. Overruling the local American military commander, Mr. Bremer decreed that conditions in Najaf were not appropriate for an election.

Several days later, American marines stormed the offices of an obscure local political party here, arrested four members and jailed them for four days. The offense, the Americans said, was a violation of a new edict by Mr. Bremer that makes it illegal to incite violence against forces occupying Iraq.

Mohammed Abdul Hadi, an official in the party, the Supreme Council for the Liberation of Iraq, accused the United States of a double standard.

''Why do you apply these constraints on us in Iraq,'' he said, ''and they are not being applied by the American government on Americans?''

The events here exposed an uncomfortable truth of the American occupation. For now, American officials are barring direct elections in Iraq and limiting free speech, two of the very ideals the United States has promised to Iraqis. American officials have said it may take up to two years for an elected Iraqi government to take over the country.

[pinqy]

1. Where did it say that Iraqis tried to stop fighting?

The article was about one attempt at an electin in Najaf...not all of Iraq. And it said nothing about Iraqis in general, or even in Najaf, trying to stop fighting. In fact it said that in the weeks prior to the attempted election, fighting had increased.

The Germans, Italians, and Japanese didn't have any real insurgency or resistance and they didn't have elections in the first month after surrender. So why would it be better and work in Iraq when the situation was less settled by occupation than it was after WWII?