Posted on 01/31/2005 4:14:14 PM PST by SandRat
In Tucson, Iraqi refugees and families of soldiers serving there expressed pleasure in Sunday's election turnout and hope for Iraq's future.
In Iraq, a former Tucsonan was similarly impressed. Ron St. John said in a phone call from Baghdad after the voting Sunday that the intense interest in forming a democracy he has found in 13 months there was evident when Iraqis braved violence to vote.
Even when suicide bombers struck near polling places, killing and wounding police and would-be voters, "They set things up again and lines kept forming," St. John said.
"Today was a great day," he said. "I would say the turnout is probably between 60 and 70 percent."
St. John, formerly an aide to Pima County Supervisor Mike Boyd, is country director for the International Republican Institute, a nongovernmental group with the goal of "advancing democracy worldwide."
It's advancing in Iraq, said Ali Mohammed. "The turnout is talking. The people are talking," said Mohammed, an Iraqi law school graduate currently studying at the University of Arizona on a Fulbright scholarship.
Mohammed spoke on a cell phone as he and two other Iraqi Fulbright scholars drove from the Los Angeles airport to a polling place in Irvine, Calif., to cast their votes.
Mohammed, from the city of Hillah, south of Baghdad, said he expected to find the same "dancing and singing" at the polls as he encountered last week when he went to register. And he said his brother told him from Iraq that the scene is being repeated there, despite deadly attempts to disrupt the election.
"The explosions and the suffering was not what they threatened or we feared. It's much lower," he said.
Tucsonan Carol Bowers said she was "thrilled" with the voter turnout because it matched the faith her son, Marine Sgt. Todd Bowers, has in the people of Iraq.
Bowers said that when her son volunteered to go back to Iraq, "I couldn't even talk, I was so scared." On his Web site, Sgt. Bowers says he was sickened by the deteriorating conditions in Iraq after helping rebuild schools and hospitals there.
"When I left, I left with hugs and thank you's," he told the newspaper at George Washington University, where he was leaning toward a major in Middle Eastern affairs and a minor in Arabic.
After he returned to college, things in Iraq went downhill. "I ask myself: 'Why did I risk nine months there and now have this happen?' I have to go back now," he told the paper.
On his second tour, Sgt. Bowers and his civil affairs group are restoring services to Fallujah, Carol Bowers said.
"I know he will be so thrilled with the percentages of people voting.
"It's just amazing to me that these people want this so badly," she said.
Ahmed Shafik said he was "not surprised" by the turnout of his people. "This is the way to get the work done. Everyone had to go and vote and be proud. They didn't care about the warnings."
Shafik, a former member of Iraq's Paralympic weight-lifting team, fled his country after earning the disfavor of Saddam Hussein's son Uday. He is studying computer systems at Pima Community College and working two jobs in Tucson and was unable to make the double round trip to Los Angeles to register and vote.
But his family lives in a fairly stable neighborhood in Baghdad and voted despite the threats, he said.
"It's going to take a while," said Shafik, "but I believe a new regime can create new laws and rules to control the country and get rid of these stupid terrorists and secure the border."
Fares Hussein, a Tucson refugee whose family is also in Baghdad, said their neighborhood is unsafe, and he didn't know if they were able to vote. He voted for them, car-pooling to California twice with three fellow refugees.
He said the voting Saturday "was exactly like Christmas or some other holiday. Everybody was happy and dancing and singing," he said. "Yesterday (Saturday), I was so happy. I tried to vote one other time in Iraq," he said. "There was nobody to choose."
For Chuck Dickson, who has waited and worried for two sons serving in Iraq, Sunday was also a good day. If the election day insurgency had been as massive as some threatened, his son's orders might have changed.
But he spoke to his son in Najaf - Marine Cpl. Kevin Dickson - Sunday morning and he was shipping out to Kuwait on schedule, due to arrive in California next week.
His father and the rest of the family will be waiting.
"Everyone is hoping that the election is pretty well received and they do form some form of democracy and we can start getting in line to leave. I'm optimistic that democracy will rule," Dickson said.
St. John said he's a lot more optimistic now than when he went to Baghdad as consultant to assess the political party situation. "I had my doubts because I really didn't support the invasion and wasn't sure there would be groups to work with."
He was supposed to stay for a week. Instead, he signed on as country director "because people were just adamant that they have a say in the country's government."
St. John did not observe the voting personally. He and his group were "in security lockdown" in their offices for the past four days.
But reports he received from Iraqi employees of the institute were inspiring, he said. Before the election, his group did a poll and found that Iraqis would "view it as legitimate if at least 50 percent voted."
"It's very important for the Iraqis to have a government they view as legitimate. Now they'll be working more with the police and the guard against the insurgents who have infiltrated their neighborhoods," he said.
Some good news from Iraqis in the US on the election.
Good news ~ bump!
Outstanding!
Totally Outstanding!!
Bump
Thanks for the ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.