Posted on 08/19/2009 11:45:43 PM PDT by Jet Jaguar
Striding out of a polling booth in central Kabul as one of the first Afghans to cast his vote early Thursday, Ramin held aloft an ink-stained finger and proudly proclaimed: "I have voted." "I'm proud of my finger," the 27-year-old security guard told AFP.
"It's the symbol of a great day for Afghanistan.
"I don't care about the Taliban and their threats. Who do they think they are? We have a government, police, army, the infrastructure of a functioning state. The Taliban are all talk."
Ramin was among about 20 people who began queuing outside the Abdul Hadi Dawi secondary school before the 7 am (0230 GMT) start of voting despite fears of violence, to beat the crowds and the heat of the day.
Standing nearby, churning a string of white worry beads through hands held behind his back, Omar said he wanted to use his vote to bring honest leadership to his impoverished, corrupted country.
"I want a person who is strong, who will work to develop the economy, build roads and schools, make education a priority, annihilate corruption," said Omar, 60, who like many Afghans only uses one name.
As the gates opened on the dot of seven, those in the queue moved slowly forward to be lightly frisked by security guards before making their way to separate rooms set up as voting stations for men and women
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
I thought it was a just an obscenely expensive “quagmire” over there?
[Go voters! Give ‘em the finger!]
And again, I ask...*where* have all the anti-war protesters gone?
“I thought it was a just an obscenely expensive “quagmire” over there?”
Even US military leaders have said it is a best a standoff.
Our country should not be giving a country that support laws like this a dime.
Law Will Let Afghan Husbands Starve Wives Who Withhold Sex
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/07/10-4
Democracy with Muslims does not change their religious views or views of non-Muslims.
Brave people, that’s all I can say.
So far, so good. Here’s hoping the day is uneventful and the turnout is robust.
Sure be great if we in the USA could have as honest elections as in such 3rd world countries.
But honest elections to the Dems would be like a cross and garlic to a vampire.
re: Afghans trickle to polling booths
We don’t do much better here in America! Looks like a lot more because we are all crowded into relatively few polling places for a limited amount of time on a single day. I suspect on a percentage of total population basis we don’t do any better than they do in getting people to step up and take part in running our country.
My Mom used to say, “Lots of excuses, but very few reasons.” I think that applies here. They have real reasons for not voting, things like threatened lopping off of fingers stained purple after voting, or heads lopped off to prevent or punish voting. OTOH, we have lots of excuses and precious few reasons.
My hat’s off to them. Interestingly, we might have a better turnout if we faced some of the real obstacles they have to face to vote! We tend to value very little that which comes to us too easily.
Good for them, so many good Afghanis want to take back their country, the decades of struggle point to that. I hope more than a trickle turns out to vote. Taliban ‘intimidation’ is no light threat, they’re ready to force themselves back into government, let’s hope they get a decisive ‘no’ this time.
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