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Posted on 12/12/2005 6:09:11 AM PST by Coop
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush is using a visit to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, birthplace of the U.S. Constitution, as a reminder before the Iraqi elections that the path to American democracy was not always easy either.
Pennsylvania also is the home state of a leading Iraq war critic, Democratic Rep. John Murtha, who planned to speak on Bush's heels and repeat his call to bring the troops home from a fight he says has become too violent and out of control...
Iraqis are preparing to vote under tight security to elect a 275-member parliament that will run the country for the next four years. The election will be the first under the new constitution ratified in an October 15 referendum and will complete the steps toward democratization following the ouster of Saddam Hussein's government.
Monday's Iraq speech is Bush's third, part of a campaign to win support for the mission, with most Americans saying in polls that they disapprove of his handling of the war. The speech is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. ET.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
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The Sunnis have joined the political process. The Iraqis have adopted the most democratic, progressive constitution in the Arab world. The country is buzzing with signs and sounds of democracy in action.
After so many years of being told what to do, having a real vote is different.
Obviously there are greater challenges in the Middle East, especially in a country brutalized by a dictator for decades, but the Iraqi people were created by the same God. Our cultures are different, but we are the same inside.
I think it is those who think that we are superior by nature that refuse to see that democracy in the Middle East is possible.
Prayers for this election! May the God who loves the WORLD be in this process, and glorify Himself through what is done this week!
WOO HOO! Good point made in those pictures!
God bless Sgt. Hauser--and our President--who is now giving us a good description of what's in the package our "Santas" have delivered!
The Sunnis are now ready to participate.
Isn't it deliciously ironic that the yellow-bellied Pennsylvanian Murtha and the 'rats would have joined the "Tories" during the American Revolution, and refused to fight the British?
Sunnis learned they must participate to have a voice in their country's affairs. They are marginalizing the Saddamists and terrorists.
Murtha's dementia is certainly evolving. I expect he will begin with drooling soon. If he does have a presser afterward, you can be certain the evening networks will headline with it.
I'm glad the President is going to remind the American people that our independence did not come overnight. I have been wanting someone to do this for a while.
Thanks for ping.
Sgt. Howser is from Murtha's home town.
"The Sunnis are ready to participate."
His talk of the Sunnis who 'get it' makes me just marvel at how the democrats, here, don't.
By meeting the milestones, Iraqi people have built momentum for democracy. They are defeating a brutal enemy.
"What we are doing is bigger than the bomb[s]." Now that's powerful!
The election will not be the end of the process.
(BBL)
POMONA, Calif. (AP) -- When Iraqi state television began transmitting internationally a few months ago, Zaid Altahan bought a satellite dish and got more than he expected: A news source that will help him decide how to vote.
In preparation for this week's parliamentary election, Altahan has been glued to Al Iraqiya, which carries debates among a dizzying number of candidates he'd never heard of.
"It's not like the States where you know a senator and vote for him," said Altahan, 43, who fled Iraq 20 years ago to avoid persecution and is now a real estate investor in this Los Angeles suburb. "A lot of us don't know these people running. Iraqi TV is doing a good job showing the new faces."
Iraqi vote organizers estimate about 240,000 Iraqis living in the United States are eligible to cast absentee ballots Dec. 13-15 at polls in Pomona, San Francisco and San Diego; Nashville, Tenn.; Chicago; Dearborn and Farmington Hills, Mich.; and McLean, Va.
The expatriates will help elect the 275 members of the National Assembly, which will rule the country over the next four years.
But there are more than 7,700 candidates, either running as independents or as members of political parties in 19 broad coalitions.
"Now we have overkill," said Talal Ibrahim, deputy coordinator for the U.S. Iraqi vote.
Ibrahim, 53, a Shiite who fled Iraq before the Iran-Iraq war began in 1980 and now lives in Aliso Viejo, said that while most voters know whom they'll support, Iraqi TV is helping with last-minute decisions.
"I have the station on 24 hours a day at my house," he said.
A $250 satellite dish can pick up the station for free. Besides news, the station has Egyptian soap operas, sporting events and traditional Iraqi music.
Iraqi TV was bankrolled by the Pentagon after Saddam Hussein's ouster in 2003 but is now funded by Iraq's finance ministry, said Ali Ahmed, the station's Washington bureau chief. Editorial decisions are independent, he said, likening the arrangement to the BBC, the British government-financed news network.
"All Iraqis have the right to appear on this station," Ahmed said. All candidates or political parties were offered five minutes of free air time in the last several weeks to explain their platforms, he said.
Many viewers in Iraq see the station as a government mouthpiece slanted toward the governing Shiite majority.
But even though many U.S. Iraqis also perceive it as Shiite-dominated, they say it's still worth watching.
"They call it the Iraqi channel but it's not really the Iraqi channel," said the Rev. Noel Gorgis, a Catholic priest in North Hollywood who fled Iraq before the first Gulf War in 1991. "It's for the Shiites, but there are still good parts to see what is going on with elections."
Though the vote in the United States is largely symbolic - the more than 14 million eligible Iraqi voters worldwide dwarf the U.S. total - Iraqi expatriates consider their participation vital.
"We didn't have a free Iraqi television station under Saddam, there wasn't any free press, even making a phone call was dangerous," said Imam Mostafa Al-Qazwini, who fled Iraq in 1971 and leads prayer at the Islamic Educational Center of Orange County in Costa Mesa. "As expatriates, we are still waiting for peace and stability to go home."
Santa and the Grinch--tee hee.
Four challenges; the first of which is security. The enemy will not give up because of a successful election. They know it will deal a blow to their power.
I'll repeat #121.
We're 'bombing' Iraq with hope.
Same here and the Iraqis should also be reminded of it. Have you read 1776 by David McCullough?
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