For Israel-hating diehard Juan Cole the election in Iraq is a great victory for the Shiites in disenfranchising the Sunnis and forcing the reluctant Bush administration into holding an open election rather than installing Ahmed Challaby as a dictator. The hero of the election is Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani who outmaneuvered the feeble Americans to get just what he wanted for his constituency. For him voters in Iraq only voted because they were "motivated by a desire to have a legitimate, elected government that could effectively demand a US withdrawal."
For Arab extremists with Ba'athist ties like bloggers Raed and Khalid Jallal the election was a fraud and voters were coerced into voting with rumors that they wouldn't receive their food ration cards if they didn't vote. Raed commented that "The Bush gang can do anything to reach to their goals. I mean ANYTHING." For them open elections with minimal violence and actually run by the UN aren't good enough. Somehow the nefarious Americans are infecting and tainting the process. Raed went on to say:
- "If anyone thinks that the current elections are fundamentally different from the ones that used to happen before the war, you are wrong. Maybe at that time Iraqis had one fake option, and now they have 100 fake options."
On reports of Iraqis celebrating after voting - widely documented on video by such pro-American media as Al Jazeera - he says "Yet, I am sure that people were not "crying out of joy" after they voted." Which is certainly an informed opinion since he is safe in Amman, Jordan and nowhere near Iraq and didn't even bother to vote at the nice safe polling place set up for Iraqis there.
Fintan Dunne, avowed Marxist and the main voice behind the leftist paranoia mill Break for News is convinced that the election took place to clear the way for an Auschwitz-like mass extermination of Iraqi Sunnis. Of course he also thinks that the Michael Jackson trial was scheduled specifically to distract us from problems with the Iraqi elections - for him the availability of flavored milk in grocery stores may well be part of some sort of conspiracy, after all everything else is.
Article comments
1 - Big Time Patriot
Elections are nice... Saddam had them, Cuba has them...
I think it is in general a good thing. The day when ex-CIA employee Allawi leaves office and is replaced by someone elected by Iraqi's will be a bit more of a real proof of Democracy.
Elections only go so far, I recall a year when our elected President had the SECOND most total of votes cast by Americans...
So enjoy the elections, keep in mind that the reporting of the results was done under pretty severe press conditions (as in the press generally couldn't go to the actual polling places). The video of Iraqi's celebrating is nice, but don't forget the widely desseminated video of Saddam's statue being "spontaneously" torn down, which later turns out to have been done under the suggestion of armed American soldiers....
I hope to god that democracy DOES take hold, but am not at all convinced that it is the TRUE wish of the administration. After all, a President who can't face an opposition t-shirt in his personal appearances doesn't imbue me with confidence that he would let an anti-american candidate actual take the leadership of Iraq at some point.
2 - Dave Nalle
Then you're a cynical pessimist who has lost faith in America, BTP. The president isn't in control here - he rarely is - American public opinion is in control. As for Iraq, it sounds very much like Ayatollah Sistani is in control and he's a very sharp, relatively moderate guy. He's neither pro nor anti American, not an enemy of political diversity, and not a complete religious crazy. The best thing is that he doesn't want to personally be in charge - unlike some other Ayatollahs who live next door.
Oh, regarding statues, have you heard that the Mayor of Baghdad wants to put up a statue of President Bush? No further details of his plan have been forthcoming, but it's not something I would have expected.
Dave
3 - Temple Stark
Then you're a cynical pessimist who has lost faith in America, BTP.
Dave, that was a complete disconnect from what BTP wrote. Whether he's right or wrong, Z doesn't come after A+B.
4 - Dave Nalle
Actually, Z does come after A+B, just not immediately after it. I may have perhaps drawn his comments out to their logical conclusions. Sort of like Z being the inevitable end of what starts with A+B.
BTP just doesn't seem to have much confidence in anything in Iraq working out well - or more specifically he assumes that if Bush is involved only evil can be the outcome. I think it's too soon to feel that way and I don't think that Bush or his administration are inherently evil.
Dave
5 - RJ
"the reporting of the results was done under pretty severe press conditions (as in the press generally couldn't go to the actual polling places)"
Not the reporters from FOXNEWS. They were at polling places.
6 - Scott
Did Dave Nalle vote for Bush? Me thinks so.
"I don't think that Bush or his administration are inherently evil."
I don't know, Dave. If you told Dick Cheney that, he might tell you to fuck off.
7 - Dave Nalle
RJ: Not the reporters from FOXNEWS. They were at polling places.
As were the ones I was watching on MSNBC and the BBC and second hand I've heard that Al Arabiya AND Al Jazeera also had reporters at polling places. Now, they may have been selected polling places, but at one point Geraldo was inside Baghdad.
Scott:Did Dave Nalle vote for Bush? Me thinks so.
On what basis? Because I don't hate and despise him? I don't hate and despise Kerry either. Does that mean I voted for Kerry?
In fact, I voted for my friend and neighbor Michael Badnarik. But had I been in a swing state I might have voted for Bush.
Scott: I don't know, Dave. If you told Dick Cheney that, he might tell you to fuck off.
Which would be charming, but makes no sense in context.
Dave
8 - HW Saxton
I think that the Bush administration are
pure evil.Dick Cheney in particular is a
real fucking prick in my book. He called
Nelson Mandela a communist for his work
to help end apartheid and voted AGAINST
his(Nelson Mandela's)release from prison
back in the day. What a nice guy!
9 - RJ
Mandela is pretty much a communist. He's pretty chummy with Castro...
10 - Dave Nalle
Mandela has many fine qualities, but even he would admit he's a communist. As for his release from jail, I'm not sure how Cheney who at that time was in the US Congress would have had any ability to vote one way or another to free Mandela from jail, since that would be the domain of the South African government, not the US government.
Dave
11 - Scott
"Which would be charming, but makes no sense in context."
It's called a joke Dave. Humor doesn't work on the internet I guess. My bad.
By the way, Dick Cheney just stuck his head in the door and told me to fuck off. I told him it was charming but out of context.
12 - Temple Stark
Is South Africa a communist country, then? A couple of reporter friends I have there would be most surprised.
13 - Dave Nalle
In a parliamentary democracy one can have communists within the government and not have a communist government. Is France a communist country? Is Spain, is Italy, is Germany, is England?
Well, they all have communists serving in public office at one level or another.
Dave