Posted on 01/23/2005 3:14:27 AM PST by ryan71
While the U.S. press continues to predict that Iraq's first election in decades will be illegitimate because violence will keep many Iraqis away from the polls, the voters themselves are telling a different story.
A whopping 80 percent of eligible Iraqis now say they intend to vote, amid threats of bombings, kidnappings, beheadings and reports that election workers are afraid to show up to carry out their official duties.
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The remarkably high turnout - if it comes to pass - would mean that a third more Iraqis will vote in their election than voted in the U.S. last November, where turnout was 60 percent. The poll, conducted in late December and early January for the International Republican Institute, went largely unreported by the American media - except for the Washington Post, which buried the news on page A-13 of its Friday edition.
The survey mirrors the expectations of Iraqi officials, who have been predicting a successful turnout for months despite widespread skepticism in the American press.
"I am expecting the turnout of Iraqi voters to be between 70 and 80 percent," Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told the BBC last week, in comments also ignored by the U.S. media.
Zebari complained that while journalists are trashing Iraqi election prospects, they lauded the recent Palestinian elections, where, he noted, "turnout was 44 percent and yet they were called transparent and legitimate."
Do you have a link?
Yep... the Iraqi turnout will be higher than even in the Palestinian territories and voters will have a REAL choice of parties and candidates. I admire people who love liberty so much they're willing to brave disfigurement and death to freely choose their country's leadership. When you consider virtually all the violence is in Sunniland, that's impressive by any measure. Yes, the elections will be open, fair and free when measured by the standards of a region in which people can't choose their governments. The Bush Doctrine in action.
Thanks
Thank you for the link. :)
And although the scumbag MSM will try to play this down, spin it, or distort it, they will not be able to cover it up completely.
This will be a real test of the DUmmies. How will they react if there is huge participation in the Iraqi election? Will they celebrate an emerging democracy, or do their petulant thing and just point out flaws, attacks, etc. and keep their praise to themselves because that would be construed as admitting Bush had done something right?
Do you really need aan answer? =:)
This is to be expected. After all, there were death squads all over Ohio keeping democRats away from the polls.
If 90% of Iraqis vote, the left will still declare it a failure because in the last "successful" election, 99.999% of Iraqis "voted" for Saddam Hussein.
liberals
During a debate with Dems and Libertarians last year, the Dem actually said "You can't force Democracy on people".
I looked at him and said "force democracy on people?? YOu gotta be kiddin!"
That would be like forcing somebody to breathe when they have been underwater and gasping for air. Freedom is like breathing. Everyone wants it.
Have they celebrated the elections in Afghanistan? No, they have erased them from memory -- during the post-inaugural Spin Show on CNN, the constant drumbeat was that the elction in Iraq was THE FIRST TEST OF THE BUSH DOCTRINE. If and when it succeeds, it too will be erased from memory and they MSM will go in search of other potential failures to trumpet.
Zebari phrased that kind of strangely, I thought.
If 90% of Iraqis vote, the left will still declare it a failure because in the last "successful" election, 99.999% of Iraqis "voted" for Saddam Hussein.And they can always bring in Jesse Jackson to show how those Iraqi's who wanted to vote for Kerry had their votes suppressed.
The DUmmies will, of course, point out Bush's failure manifested by an illegitimate election in Iraq where turnout is 33% higher than in the US election. Perhaps they'll figure they can delegitimize the 2008 US election by boycotting it like the Sunnis in Iraq. That would teach us!
No, it was kind of a rhetorical question. As others have pointed out, the Afghanistan vote was a referendum of the correctness of Bush's invasion; as soon as things looked legit there, the MSM collectively turned to camera B and said "Well, there's OTHER things to talk about, like the mess in Iraq!" I rarely see stories about Afghanistan on the news now. A US success in progress there isn't as interesting as their crystal ball predictions of DISASTER! CIVIL WAR! BUSH'S WHOLE ADMINISTRATION RIDING ON THIS!!!!!
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