Iraqi Expats Dance for Joy After Voting

Yahoo News ^ | 1/29/05 | COLIN FLY, AP

[kattracks]

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Abdul al-Najr woke up early Saturday with his wife, piled into a car with three friends and drove 250 miles from St. Louis to the polling place here, where jubilant Iraqis danced and held hands in the steady, cold rain. On the second day of voting for Iraqi expatriates, people drove hundreds of miles to reach the five U.S. cities with polling places: Nashville, Detroit, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington. More than 5,000 Iraqis voted on Friday, and organizers expected larger crowds over the weekend.

"I'm so happy because I'm human," al-Najr, 38, said after casting a ballot for the first time in his life. "I get to say I'm human now."

In Nashville, which has the largest Kurdish community in the nation, about 20 Kurds celebrated by dancing and waving flags in the rain. The men and women broke into a line dance called the badine with traditional music blaring from a car's speakers.

Children waved flags to signify Kurdistan, while several teenage boys wore Iraqi soccer jerseys and had their faces painted like the national flag.

"It is celebration because for the first time they taste the freedom of this country," said George Khamou, of Little Rock, Ark., who watched the dancers. "This is really a big celebration for all of us here — the Kurdish, the Arabs, the Christians, everybody.

"All we say now is all of us are Iraqis, because we are all the same."

Voters had their right index finger dipped in ink as a safeguard against voting fraud, then dropped paper ballots into boxes.

"They're thrilled to have the ink on their finger as a badge that they voted," said Kathleen Houlihan, the Chicago spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration, which is helping coordinate the vote. "It's history in the making."

Nearly 26,000 people have registered to vote in the United States. Tens of thousands more are expected to vote in 13 other countries during balloting that runs through Sunday, the same day as elections in Iraq (news - web sites).

One busload of about 50 Iraqis traveled from Lincoln, Neb., to cast their ballots Saturday in Rosemont, Ill., about 20 miles northwest of Chicago, while other voters arrived from Iowa, Missouri and Indiana.

Turnout was steady in sunny Irvine, Calif., where voters clapped and cheered as fellow expatriates completed their paper ballots.

"I never thought I could put the words together, Iraq and vote," said Mona Oshana, 36, who has lived in Phoenix since she was a child. "We have left (Iraq), but we have not forgotten them."

Bako Darwesh, 5, and his little brother Dana, 2, splashed around in mud puddles while first their mother, Samiir, and then their father, Sherko, voted in Nashville.

"Everything is excellent (here)," said Sherko Darwesh of Memphis. "But the situation is difficult there (in Iraq). We hope that they will be safe, we hope."

Iraq's president warned that fears about security there would prompt many to stay home rather than vote in the nation's first election in half a century. Mortar rounds landed at least one polling site in the region south of Baghdad overnight.

In Australia, fistfights broke out at a polling station Saturday when a group of Islamic extremists chanted slogans against those casting ballots.

But in the United States, Iraqis were thrilled to be voting for the 275-member assembly that will draft Iraq's new constitution.

Arkan al-Hasnawi, 33, of LaCrosse, Wis., has spent the last two weeks in Nashville staying with his family and brother Thaban, 38.

"It's a long time we've been waiting for vote," Arkan al-Hasnawi said. "Everybody is excited to vote, everybody should get that chance — to vote for a new Iraq."

Both brothers were hopeful Iraq could be unified like it was before Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)'s regime.

"If we get right person, then he can run the country right and everybody will be happy," Thaban al-Hasnawi said.

___

Associated Press writer Mike Colias in Chicago contributed to this report.

[srm913]

I'm sure the New York Times and Washington Post will splash this story all over their front pages, above the fold, right?

[Peach]

Bless their hearts. I am praying for courage and wisdom for those people. They've gone through 30 years of sheer hell.

Today a blogger said that he voted and felt like he put his heart in that box.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

After letting the Iraquis down after the first Gulf War I am happy to see that American Iraquis are happy about this election. Wonder why Moore didn't interview them? Maybe cause he's afraid they'd bash his face and camera!

[kipita]

Momentum, the snowball rolling down the hill, is a very powerful force.

[gopwinsin04]

Let freedom ring!

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

"If we get the right person, he can run the country and everyone will be happy."

Sounds like Bush here! We got the right person and he is running the country and everyone who believes in America is happy.

[tet68]

"It is celebration because for the first time they taste the freedom of this country,"

Gosh, that makes me feel good.

[kemathen7]

Freedom is a longing every person on this Earth has. Its part of them. Its how God made us.

Congratulations to the Iraqi people. This warms my heart. They deserve to celebrate.

(Could any of you imagine Americans taking voting this seriously? Hardly. Bunch of spoiled brats, the lot of them. I always wear my "I voted" sticker with pride).

[Bahbah]

Momentum, the snowball rolling down the hill, is a very powerful force.

Well, you will love this. Fox had some WaPo reporter on who informed us that democracy and free elections were coming to the Middle East anyway, it was just a matter of time (like, maybe 500 years), and none of this was actually necessary. Absolutely unbelievable. Watch for this as the next DNC talking point when this "adventure" in Iraq breeds more and more success.

[ichabod1]

I don't know about that. I'm glad Bushie is in there but he has some weird internationalist ideas that trouble me greatly. I won't go so far as to call him a socialist, but he certainly seems to not have a problem with hopping in the sack with them when it comes to trade, immigration, and sovereignty issues.

[freedom44]

It was worth it.
Valerie Clemente waves at cars carrying Iraqi voters as they leave the polls on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2005 in Nashville, Tenn. Clemente, of Nashville, said she came out to show her support for the Iraqi people. The Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq (news - web sites) is allowing Iraqi immigrants living in 14 countries to vote by absentee ballot. Overseas voting continues through Sunday, Jan. 30, in five U.S. cities. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)
Iraqi immigrants with the Assyrian Christian Society, Nadia Khoshaba, third from left, from Phoenix, Ariz., is hugged by Mona Oshana, second left, after casting their votes in the Iraqi election at the former El Toro Marine Base in Irvine, Calif., on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2005. The Independent Iraqi Electoral Commission is allowing Iraqi immigrants living in 14 countries to vote by absentee ballot. Overseas voting continues through Sunday, which is Election Day in Iraq (news - web sites) itself. At left is friend Jacklin Mushi, and at right is David Sargon. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)

Seventy-year-old Iraqi exile Mehsin Imgoter holds his voting ballot up and begins to weep before putting it in the voting box in the Detroit suburb of Southgate, Michigan on January 28, 2005. Almost 30 percent of registered Iraqi exiles voted on the first day of absentee balloting in Iraq (news - web sites)'s first postwar election, organizers said on Saturday. A total of 84,429 Iraqis abroad, or 29.8 percent of the 280,303 who registered, voted on Friday. Those who registered number only a quarter of expatriates entitled to vote. (Rebecca Cook/Reuters)

[ichabod1]

Bunch of spoiled brats, the lot of them.

Given the way the socialists have behaved in the last couple of election cycles, I think that we are starting to cherish our right to vote more and more as the peaceful transfer of power is threatened. This has really been going on at least since JFK and frankly I'm sick of being disenfranchised.

[elhombrelibre]

Very, very inspiring. These are the people Teddy Kennedy would abandon with no more concern than when he abandoned Mary Jo Kopechne. These are the elections the Liberals wanted to delay so the insurgents could succeed and the policy of aiding democracy would fail.

[MinuteGal]

Shall we vote?
On a bright cloud of freedom shall we fly?
Shall we vote?
Shall we all shout hooray while we're all giving old Saddam a last goodbye?

Shall we vote?
And perchance when the last of our votes is in the box
Shall we all band together with our arms around each other
Shouting "Screw you Teddie, screw you Babs, screw you France"?

Shall we vote?
With a clear understanding that GW floats our boat
We shall vote !
We shall vote !
We shall vote !

Leni

[BobS]

I want all those people to finally get contol of their lives and country. The disease will be eliminated.

[Marano NYC]

This should be required reading for peace activists. They know what the Iraqi people want better than the Iraqis.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

I have to remember he is a politician and there may be parts of his plans I am not privy to. So far, he's the best we have and pretty darn good. Perhaps he could do more if he did not have to deal with such a strong liberal force here at home. the times have changed since the 50's. I can remember when the Hungarians got their freedom, everyone here cheered and JFk saying," Ich bin ein Berliner."

[shhrubbery!]

Hell must have frozen over: I watched all three cable news organizations portray the grateful Iraqi voters in a positive light yesterday!

Even CNN had a very touching report on some Iraqi exiles in Washington state, who were overjoyed at the point of tears at getting the right to vote.

Mmore than once I heard things like "We love George Bush!" and "Thank you, thank you America for making this possible!"

[RAY]

Iraqis with the purple thumb should organize and come down hard on the insurgent and other idiots trying to prevent a democracy in Iraq!

Yes, a "purple thumbs up" symbol should become the symbol for all those who had the courage to vote.