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nfotxnYou can now ex-hale my fellow patriots! Iraq has had their election and just like after the last US federal election everybody is happy. All this time we were worrying about insurgence and the task of actually running a government in a war torn country. But shit, they had an election. And despite bombings and deaths today at the polling stations alone clearly this is a water-shed event? Why? Because they voted! Voting man that is like what America is all about.
The media coverage is, as per usual, painting a simplistic and sunny picture of what is actually an ever complex and dangerous situation in that country. There has been little mention as to how Sunnis see the vote as rushed and unfair. Largely it's the Shiites attending the polling stations hamming for the cameras with their fingers and smiles. While a majority may rule an election a minority still has it's place in the civic discourse. This is but one distinction in the country that poses a problem. And one might go as far as to say that it took a dictator to unite Iraq in the past. With that singular, albeit unfair, control over the acrimony what do you have left?
Only time will tell but despite my heartstrings being pulled along with everyone else's today my money isn't on the unicorns and rainbows just yet.
The media coverage is, as per usual, painting a simplistic and sunny picture of what is actually an ever complex and dangerous situation in that country. There has been little mention as to how Sunnis see the vote as rushed and unfair. Largely it's the Shiites attending the polling stations hamming for the cameras with their fingers and smiles. While a majority may rule an election a minority still has it's place in the civic discourse. This is but one distinction in the country that poses a problem. And one might go as far as to say that it took a dictator to unite Iraq in the past. With that singular, albeit unfair, control over the acrimony what do you have left?
Only time will tell but despite my heartstrings being pulled along with everyone else's today my money isn't on the unicorns and rainbows just yet.
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no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 05:41 am (UTC)Woof?
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Date: 2005-01-31 05:55 am (UTC)mmmmm....
Date: 2005-01-31 08:19 am (UTC)as text.
wooky.
Re: mmmmm....
Date: 2005-01-31 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 07:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 06:50 am (UTC)If only voting *was* what America is all about - the Iraqis have smoked our average turnout numbers on their first time out in 50 years. I bet our numbers would drop into the freakin' basement if even *one* voter was killed by an insurgent attack at the polls here.
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Date: 2005-01-31 05:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 06:14 pm (UTC)I think you largely missed my point. This is about western media misrepresentation of the facts of the matter to present more digestible news.
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Date: 2005-01-31 06:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 06:46 pm (UTC)*WINK WINK* <===facetiousness.
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Date: 2005-01-31 06:44 pm (UTC)Well that's an inherent hazard of the internet - facetious becomes ambiguous. The irony is that it *is* a historic big deal that they had an election, and its quite a sobering example for those of us here to lazy to get off our asses and even write an e-mail to our reps much less go to the polls (or other inconvenient political chore).
I didn't miss your point about the media, I just wasn't addressing it. Maybe we get better news on our talk radio here in ATL than on major outlet TV, because I've been hearing a decent bit about the various parties, factions, and ethnic groups vying for powre and/or stability over there.
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Date: 2005-02-01 05:43 am (UTC)True, oh very cute one. But some of them apparently only voted so that they could eat this month. (http://truthout.org/docs_2005/013105Y.shtml)
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Date: 2005-02-01 12:58 pm (UTC)The article you supplied does seem to have its own slant though...saying "many" Iraqis had this issue but providing only a couple examples, all of which look to me like they could be explained by either the "local pollster with a power trip /axe to grind" model or the "paranoid political urban legend" model, both of which occur here in out own elections. Again, not a good thing, but not anything so out of the ordinary for a hotly contested, emotional and logistically enormous process.
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Date: 2005-01-31 06:50 am (UTC)you crack me up!
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Date: 2005-01-31 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-01-31 03:31 pm (UTC)