We can take this one back from France...they don't need it anymore
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Locked on 01/30/2005 6:57:11 AM PST by Lead Moderator, reason:
Thread two: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1331855/posts |
Posted on 01/29/2005 4:03:31 PM PST by Dog
It is now 3 am in Iraq the polls will be opening in the next few hours as the world watches and hold's it breath. Iraq is about to undertake a historic vote.
Lets wish them well....... please post all comments and election photos to this thread.
I agree. But that picture of that Iraqi policeman seems to have his face covered. I hadn't realized the policeman had to hide their faces...It's just mind-boggling! We are so blessed to live in this wonderful country!
"This Historic event helps our security at home!"
Right you are, it also gives us a present day sense of our own history. To see these brave Iraqi's vote under the threat of death, gives a renewed meaning to, "Liberty of Death".
Oops!
"Liberty Or Death"
And they wonder why they are losing elections. I hope they never figure it out.
That would be pretty cool. I think the best place for such a statue would be in the same spot where the Saddam statue was that was ripped down on the day we liberated Baghdad.
Thank you. The old saying "consider the source" applies deeply here. It's a subject the deserves it's own thread, but CNN goes by the shovel and forget journalism school. It means they'll report it, but since they support the supposed "freedom fighters", and this story makes them look bad, they'll bury it.
Just an FYI, say you hear something on ABC radio news. Many times you won't be able to find the story, even on their own website.
I was horrified. I knew they were wretched, petty, and only partially sane, but this is obscene.
the one poster that hoped for a high turnout and no violence was hooted off the thread.
It is so pathetic not to be able to find joy in this. Nothing liberal about the left these days.
We can take this one back from France...they don't need it anymore
I like Geraldo ... I think he's doing a heck of a job. Shep's a turd.
yep. Agreed on all points.
This day will be chalked up as just another event in the long lasting legacy of President George W. Bush. A legacy that will be felt for generations.
"I hope there is some way to communicate the interest in this to our troops over there, and to the Iraqis in general. All this 'it's all about oil' nonsense is shown to be a lie by this thread. Nobody here is even talking about oil. It's all about freedom and defeating terror."
Yep, you captured the true sentiment and concerns of America, and I bet the Iraqi's WILL hear about that.
Shep looked better today than he has looked since he got to Iraq. He's feeling the spirit.
You are so correct. The fanatics have been bombing 24/7 since Saddam was taken out...So what's new? By voting, Iraqis have a genuine chance to finally get rid of these murderers!
Lesson from Algeria
Jerusalem Post ^ | 1-12-05 | AMIR TAHERIPosted on 01/13/2005 7:57:02 AM EST by SJackson
Earlier this month Algerian security forces captured Nureddin Boudiafi after a nine-week hunt and five days of intense firefights in the woods near the capital, Algiers.
Are you wondering who Boudiafi is, and why his capture merits attention? Well, the man was leader of the Islamic Armed Group (GIA), the deadliest of terrorist gangs to shed Algerian blood, killing over 150,000 people since 1992.
Boudiafi described himself as Emir al-Momeneen or "Prince of the Faithful" and issued fatwas sentencing anyone he didn't like to death. He was a graduate of the school of terror set up by "Arab Afghans" in Afghanistan in the 1980s, and belonged to the same movement that produced Osama bin Laden and Abu-Mussab al-Zarqawi, emir of the terrorists in Iraq.
So why is Boudiafi's capture significant?
It is significant because it establishes firmly that the terrorists are now on the run, pursued by government forces.
This was not always the case.
For almost five years the terrorists held the initiative, attacking where and when they wished, forcing the government's forces into a defensive posture.
They specialized in mass killings. In Bin Talha, a suburb of Algiers, for example, they cut the throats of some 800 people, mostly women and children, in a single night.
The Algerian terrorists never came up with anything resembling a political program. They just killed people.
They killed teenagers on their way to school. They chopped off the heads of Christian monks and Muslim muftis. They murdered trade unionists, political leaders and journalists.
They captured young girls and forced them into temporary marriages with "the holy warriors." They seized hostages, burned schools and hospitals, blew up factories and shops, and did all they could to disrupt the economy.
At times they pulled off spectacular coups, for example by murdering the country's president and its most prominent trade-union leader.
In 1991 they came close to winning power via a mixture of violence and electoral fraud.
They pursued two objectives. The first was to destroy the Algerian army by killing as many recruits as they could to provoke mass desertions. The second was to prevent elections being held.
"DEMOCRACY means the rule of the people," Antar Zu'abri, one of the most notorious of the terrorist chiefs liked to say. "Those who want the rule of the people defy the rule of God, which is Islam."
By 1994 the terrorists seemed to be winning. At least, Fran ois Mitterrand, France's president at the time, thought so. In a statement he said Paris was prepared to work with an "Islamic" regime in Algiers.
Visiting Algiers in March 1994, I was struck by the mood of doom and gloom at high levels of government. Some members of the elite were toying with the idea of negotiating surrender to the terrorists.
After a moment of tergiversation in which the Algerian leaders did not know quite what to do, they stumbled on a strategy almost by instinct.
They realized that the terrorists lacked a popular base. But it was also clear that a majority of Algerians had adopted a wait-and-see attitude, hating the terrorists in secret but too frightened to take a public stand against them.
The key was to mobilize the silent majority through elections.
Few people are prepared to die, and even fewer to kill, in support of any political opinion. But almost everyone is ready to vote.
THE TASK of a civilized society is to render the expression of political opinions easy. The terrorists made it difficult because they demanded that the people kill and die.
Algeria's leaders decided to make it easy by asking the people to vote.
The turning point came in 1995, when Algeria organized its first genuine presidential election.
It was not an ideal exercise. The candidates were little known, having appeared on the national political scene just a couple of years earlier, and offered no coherent program.
The terrorists did all they could to prevent the election. They burned voter registration offices and murdered election officers. Masked men visited people in homes and shops to warn that going to the polls would mean death.
On polling day it became clear that the terrorists faced defeat.
Never in my many years of journalism had I seen such enthusiasm for an election anywhere. The silent majority spoke in a thunderous voice by casting ballots – not because it particularly liked any of the candidates, but because it wanted to send a message that terrorists had no place in Algeria.
That one election did not make Algeria a democracy. Since then Algeria has held three more presidential and a dozen local and parliamentary elections. None have been perfect, and Algeria may need dozens more to reach standards set by mature democracies.
But the experience made one fact clear: The only way to defeat terrorism is by involving the people through elections.
The Algerian experience holds lessons for Iraq, where terrorists pursue the same strategy as their Algerian colleagues.
Zarqawi and other terrorists are trying to disrupt elections by killing recruits, preventing the formation of an Iraqi national army.
Copycatting their Algerian counterparts, they also have assassinated high-profile officials and politicians. But, like the Algerians, they too will learn that in a democracy no individual is indispensable.
Iraq's first-ever free election, scheduled for January 30, will confront the terrorists with the people's power, just as Algeria did in 1995.
That is why it is vital that the election be held on time.
BTW, do not go to that part of the city if you ever visit Paris ( as if ). Now it's a high crime area, courtesy of TROP.
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