Elections are no magic potion, but part of a political process

“Elections are no magic potion, but part of a political process. They must be prepared well and take place at the right time to produce the good effects that you expect from them.”

Asked if it was possible to hold elections as conditions exist now, al-Ibrahimi said: “If the circumstances stay as they are, I personally don’t think so.”

I’m wary of people who pick the worst among their opponents to “prove” the superiority of their own position. I won’t say Viktor Yushchenko is an anti-Semite just because this nut believes in a kosher conspiracy (literally). I won’t say National Review is full of Nazis just because this Nazi echoes their sentiments perfectly. And I won’t say all neoconservatives/pro-war “libertarians” should be drummed out of the league of halfway decent humans just because one of them should.

But the aforementioned one is not exactly on the fringe of pro-war thought. In fact, he’s a program director at the Institute for Humane Studies, a major mainstream libertarian organization. His standard approach to foreign-policy matters goes as follows:

(1) make assertions so outrageously stupid and/or vicious that they far surpass the worst caricatures of right-wingers;

(2) whine that those who either recoil in horror or laugh their asses off aren’t addressing his arguments.

His latest libertarian argument?