Suprised no one has started a thread about the January elections in Iraq. Do you think this is possible? Seems Rummy is already floating a very strange idea for Democratic elections... ------------------------------- Rumsfeld Raises Prospect of Limited Iraq Elections "Let's say you tried to have an election and you could have it in three-quarters or four-fifths of the country. But in some places you couldn't because the violence was too great," Rumsfeld said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing. "Well, so be it. Nothing's perfect in life, so you have an election that's not quite perfect. Is it better than not having an election? You bet," he said. http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20040923/wl_nm/iraq_usa_rumsfeld_dc_4 Is this Democracy?
Hmmm.....let's see now...... An election where some citizens who want to vote cannot, due to circumstances beyond their control. Well, God bless him! George W. Bush has truly brought "American-style Democracy" to Iraq!
Better than what they had, and if the people that did not vote are pissed, maybe they will vote the next time. DD
This administration is just pure comedy, i mean how can you even take these people seriously? Limited elections will just divide the country more and increase the chances of civil war. Most of the so called "unsafe areas" are in the Sunni (sp?) triangle, so your going to have a whole group of people excluded. How can that lead to anything but more division and bloodshed? http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
And of course the areas in danger of not being able to vote are those most opposed to the U.S. presence. Imagine if in Novemeber the Northeast and California weren't allowed to vote. What kind of democracy would that be?
14/15 of the 18 provinces are secure enough for a vote. Only problem is that Baghdad has 25% of the Iraqi population and is one of the nonsecure provinces.
Sounds like bamma's wet dream! Logistically I just don't see elections happening in January. What? It's been three years since the war in Afghanistan and they are just now about to have elections (October I believe? They were supposed to be in June?). Registering people Training polling people Setting up districts Setting up parties I read that one of the ideas is to have people vote for blocks of parties that would then elect members to represent them, not voting for individual candidates. They have no system in place at this time for any of this. And people think they can get all of this done in 4 months? I just don't see it happening
