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Suddenly, It's 'America Who?'
New York Times ^ | 2/6/05 | Dexter Filkins

Posted on 02/05/2005 5:30:16 PM PST by saquin

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Through 22 months of occupation and war here, the word "America" was usually the first word to pass through the lips of an Iraqi with a gripe.

Why can't the Americans produce enough electricity? Why can't the Americans guarantee security? Why can't the Americans find my stolen car?

Last week, as the euphoria of nationwide elections washed over this country, a remarkable thing happened: Iraqis, by and large, stopped talking about the Americans.

With the ballots still being counted here, the Iraqi candidates retired to the back rooms to cut political deals, leaving the Americans, for the first time, standing outside. In Baghdad's tea shops and on its street corners, the talk turned to which of those candidates might form the new government, to their schemes and stratagems, and to Iraqi problems and Iraqi solutions.

And for the United States, the assessments turned unfamiliarly measured.

"We have no electricity here, no water and there's no gasoline in the pumps," said Salim Mohammed Ali, a tire repairman who voted in last Sunday's election. "Who do I blame? The Iraqi government, of course. They can't do anything."

Asked about the American military presence here, Mr. Ali chose his words carefully.

"I think the Americans should stay here until our security forces are able to do the jobs themselves," Mr. Ali said, echoing virtually every senior American officer in Iraq. "We Iraqis have our own government now, and we can invite the Americans to stay."

The Iraqi focus on its own democracy, and the new view of the United States, surfaced in dozens of interviews with Iraqis since last Sunday's election. It is unclear, of course, how widespread the trend is; whole communities, like the Sunni Arabs, remain almost implacably opposed to the presence of American forces. But by many accounts, the elections last week altered Iraqis' relationship with the United States more than any single event since the invasion.

Since April 9, 2003, when Saddam Hussein's rule crumbled, Iraqis have viewed themselves more or less as American subjects. American officials ran their government, American soldiers fought their war, American money paid to rebuild Iraq.

Indeed, the American project to implant democracy in Iraq often seemed to be in danger of falling victim to the country's manifest political passivity, born of a quarter-century of torture centers, mass graves, free food and pennies-a-gallon gasoline. The more the Americans tried to nudge the Iraqis towards self-government, the more the Iraqis expected the Americans to do.

As the insurgents wreaked more and more havoc, and sabotaged more and more of the country's power supply, the Iraqis, not surprisingly, blamed the people in charge. Day by day, many Iraqis' gratitude for the toppling of Saddam Hussein seemed to harden into bitterness and contempt.

After June 28, when American suzerainty here formally ended, not many Iraqis bought the notion that the interim government of Ayad Allawi was anything other than a caretaker regime, hand-picked by the Americans and the United Nations.

All that seemed to change last Sunday, when millions of Iraqis streamed to the polls. Few if any Iraqis had ever voted in anything approaching a free election, yet most seemed to know exactly what the exercise was about: selecting their own representatives to lead their own country.

"Our dilemma is solved," said Rashid Majid, 80, who wore his best jacket to the polls. "We will follow our new leaders, because we have chosen them."

Some Iraqis saw in the election their own liberation, one that many did not feel on April 9, 2003. Mr. Hussein's regime was not toppled by Iraqis but by the American military, a fact that has lingered in Iraqi minds.

Yet after casting ballots in a free election, conducted by more than 100,000 Iraqi poll workers, many Iraqis said they finally felt free - not only from the terrors of the old regime, but also from acute feelings of humiliation about the American occupation.

"The election was a victory of our own making," said Mowaffak al-Rubaie, the national security adviser. "The Iraqi people voted with their own blood."

The newfound self-respect that Mr. Rubaie believes the election conferred on ordinary Iraqis seems to have had an immediate impact on their view of the United States. Suddenly empowered with the vote, Iraqis no longer seem to view America as all-powerful, or themselves as unable to affect events. A result has been a suddenly more accepting view of the United States.

The realism among Iraqis was evident on election day itself. Amid the euphoria of voting, America, which had almost always been the first topic of conversation, was suddenly evanescent, unmentioned in a score of interviews unless a reporter raised it first. And when Iraqis did talk of America, it was with a reasonableness and patience that had seemed missing, a willingness to balance good with bad, to give credit where it is due.

This transition seemed all the more striking for the fact that Apache helicopters roared over the polling centers every few minutes with American troops manning checkpoints only a few blocks away.

Hachim Shahir, an 83-year-old bricklayer standing in line for hours to vote, was asked how it had been possible for somebody like him to arrive at such a late stage in life without ever having voted, and now finally to have cast a ballot. He thought for a long while, then answered: "America - it was America that did it."

And how did he feel about that?

"America will be good if it completes what it came here to do, to bring us democracy, and then it goes home," Mr. Shahir said. "The main thing now is that they keep their promises, and leave. Personally, I believe they will do it."

The new mood appears to have continued since election day. The calls by candidates for a timetable for American military withdrawal have died away. Even a group of Sunni politicians decided last week that they would take part in the drafting of Iraq's new constitution without insisting on a timetable.

Getting Iraqis to take charge of their own affairs, whether by fighting insurgents or taking over government ministries, has been the goal of American leaders here since the fall of Saddam Hussein. After 22 months of trying to persuade the Iraqis to stand on their own, while doing everything for them, the Americans may be finding that Iraqis, now fully sovereign, don't want them to go home so soon after all.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iraq; iraqielection
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To: saquin
This is only a bad article if one reads selectively. I think the fact that this is appearing in the NYT shows that some liberals are not the lying hate-filled jerks that most libs are, but have honest disagreements with the war, and are now honestly analysing the success on THEIR terms of success. I don't expect folks like this to love W, but this article presents a potent, foreceful case that everything changed last Sunday.

Often we wait for events and pre-analyze them--when THIS happens we will be happy, for example--but I think now many are seeing that while last Sunday was just the first step, it's like saying you can't overhype a baby's first step, that the first step doesn't mean the baby will walk.

That's nonsense. This election was a historic moment.

21 posted on 02/05/2005 5:51:27 PM PST by Darkwolf377 ("I personally do not believe they're going to be ready for the election in January."--Jimmy Carter)
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To: saquin

"I think the Americans should stay here until our security forces are able to do the jobs themselves," Mr. Ali said, echoing virtually every senior American officer in Iraq. "We Iraqis have our own government now, and we can invite the Americans to stay."


===

I loved this! I think Iraq really turned the corner.


22 posted on 02/05/2005 5:51:31 PM PST by FairOpinion
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To: dirtboy

Right. Who really cares what these known A-holes have to say? Their credibility is non-existent. They are finished.


23 posted on 02/05/2005 5:52:13 PM PST by CBart95
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To: dirtboy

You should take an acknowledgement from the New York Times that the election had a positive effect (just like Bush said it would) and declare victory. Carping about the editorial bent of the Times will only result in ulcers.


24 posted on 02/05/2005 5:52:15 PM PST by Arkie2
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To: Arkie2
You should take an acknowledgement from the New York Times that the election had a positive effect (just like Bush said it would) and declare victory. Carping about the editorial bent of the Times will only result in ulcers.

I will carp all I friggin' want to, until I've got gefilte fish coming out my ears. IMO this was an attempt to downplay the triumph of the elections. And I am SICK of the media over-reporting the negatives in Iraq and downplaying the positives.

25 posted on 02/05/2005 5:54:08 PM PST by dirtboy (.)
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To: Temple Owl

I wouldn't play poker with him either!!


26 posted on 02/05/2005 5:54:58 PM PST by momf ( (Amnesty for ILLEGALS is a slap in the face to the American citizens and laws))
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To: dirtboy

Whatever dude. Don't get a hernia.


27 posted on 02/05/2005 5:55:40 PM PST by Arkie2
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To: dirtboy

dirt boy.......I think you are missing the big picture here IMO.......I thought the article was bringing clear the fact that the Iraqi's are now realizing it is not the Americans that are either at fault nor the saviour......it is themselves that have to fix the problems that Saddam left. The article was not intended to address the election itself but the aftermath and the thinking that is changing


28 posted on 02/05/2005 5:57:56 PM PST by NorCalRepub
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To: Tragically Single
This is key to understanding the Iraqis. In their eyes, by removing Hussein, we made the Iraqi people look weak and impotent. It's their time now.

Well, then, by doing what it takes to defeat the Baathist Sunni thugs that are still trying to re-enslave them, the Iraqi people have a wonderful opportunity to demonstrate their newfound power.

29 posted on 02/05/2005 5:58:38 PM PST by Polybius
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To: Arkie2
Whatever dude. Don't get a hernia.

Sorry, I'm sick of the Slimes. They have tried for months to make it seem like we weren't wanted in Iraq. Now, all of a sudden, we are now just a non-factor.

Quite frankly, we are at war with the the MSM. This country lost Vietnam because the left ended up winning the battle of images and impressions. We cannot let that happen again in Iraq. And a key part of the left agenda is to downplay the triumphs so that the bad days don't seem worth the trouble.

30 posted on 02/05/2005 5:58:43 PM PST by dirtboy (.)
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To: NorCalRepub
I thought the article was bringing clear the fact that the Iraqi's are now realizing it is not the Americans that are either at fault nor the saviour......it is themselves that have to fix the problems that Saddam left.

I don't disagree with that part of the article. My point is, suddenly it went from the fault of the Americans to the fault of the new Iraqi government. And no stop for credit for positive achievements in between.

31 posted on 02/05/2005 5:59:54 PM PST by dirtboy (.)
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To: dirtboy

I guess some people don't know surrender when they see it. Open your eyes. Some on the left are admitting they were wrong. This is about as big a concession as you'll get from the Times.


32 posted on 02/05/2005 6:02:05 PM PST by Arkie2
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To: dirtboy

I gotcha on that........I really really think they are just learning how to think for themselves after 30 years of being "thought" slaves.......sometimes we are the same griping about the negatives in life and taking for granted the good things.........but I see the point you were making


33 posted on 02/05/2005 6:03:02 PM PST by NorCalRepub
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To: arjay

Well, half-way decent. Let's not forget the Iraqi woman who hugged the American woman who lost her son in Iraq.


34 posted on 02/05/2005 6:09:18 PM PST by maxwellp
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To: saquin
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

Iran is next.

35 posted on 02/05/2005 6:11:35 PM PST by Faraday
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To: Faraday

I'll drink to that!


36 posted on 02/05/2005 6:29:15 PM PST by DTogo (U.S. out of the U.N. & U.N out of the U.S.)
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To: saquin
Holy Cow! A fair, informative, positive and entertaining piece in the Times. What's goin' on?
37 posted on 02/05/2005 6:29:19 PM PST by JennysCool (I was so naive as a kid I used to sneak behind the barn and do nothing. -Johnny Carson)
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To: saquin

Dexter Filkins better watch his back. This is the second upbeat article he's written on the Iraq elections. If he's not careful, the NYT will send him to the gulag for reprogramming.


38 posted on 02/05/2005 6:43:09 PM PST by Yardstick
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To: saquin

Is Dexter Filkins going to be fired from the NYT for writing this article?


39 posted on 02/05/2005 6:43:25 PM PST by ricks_place
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To: MJY1288
The worm is starting to turn. The MSM is always cognitive of popular opinion. They mostly have tried to sway it in the direction of Socialism or Communism but they see, more than we do, the financial repercussions of their futile efforts to undermine our sovereignty and moral values.
Let's not forget that America has never tried to colonize another people or country. This would be unlike most of our "allies". Let's start with Rome, then go to the Holy Wars that propagated the United Kingdom. From there, we can observe the overbearing influence the British, French, Germans and Spanish tried to impose on us after they basically told us that we could leave because we were their "rancid refuse". Next, we can look at the conquests of Germany and Russia, as they tried to impose their way of life on weaker countries for personal gain. Add to this the unstopping zealous greed that has been exhibited by China, the Mongols, Korea and North Viet Nam, to name a few, in the Asian world. I won't even touch on the misguided Islamofacism that's been present in their religion since time immemorial. The bottom line is that we have been the benevolent benefactor of the world since we've been around and gotten nothing but envy and avarice from those we have protected. We can only keep doing what we're doing because we do have Christian morals and God's blessing as the most prosperous and generous people in His world.
What really impresses me about what's happening in Iraq is that they now have something in common with us. They risked their lives and showed great strength and determination to be a free people. I can understand how this made them feel like brethren instead of subordinates. I welcome them as my brothers in the fight for freedom. I respect them and hope that their courage can inspire others in that region, that I feel are weak because they haven't found their balls yet and will never be free until they do.
40 posted on 02/05/2005 6:48:00 PM PST by scars
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