Intbel

Washington - 19 January: More than half of Iraqis believe the American-arranged, paid for, and supervised 'election' in a few days is to select a new Iraqi President under occupation. They don't even have that right for actually it is an 'election' to select those who will then draft another new Iraqi Constitution, all under the watchful gaze and guidance of some 150,000 American troops; a few thousand CIA, State Department, and USAID agents; and an army of U.S.-hired propagandists and often questionable foreign media and 'contractors'.

The Americans now have their Alhurra loudly broadcasting in Arabic to Iraq from Virginia not far from CIA HQ -- a $100million+ yearly propaganda TV channel designed to push and legitimize this charade of an election and of which Joseph Goebbles and his Nazi-regime of old would surely be envious.

Plus vast other funds are being used for propaganda dissemination of all kinds even though nearly all of the candidates refuse to so far identify themselves by name and fewer yet are brave enough to dare 'campaign' in public -- no matter how much money and priviledges and promises are passed their way by the American occupier ...

Personally I fear that January 30th could well be one of Iraq's bloodiest days yet. Here are a few quotes:

Abu Muhanned, for example, does not plan to stick around for Jan. 30. At the travel agency, he asked for a reservation at a five-star hotel in Cairo, where he said the family would wait out the election period.

Another traveler, who gave her name as Um Sara, said she and her 16-year-old daughter also planned to go to Egypt before the elections. But they did not plan to return.
"It is going to be so bad here during the elections and worse after," she said. "There will be lots of car bombs and explosions. I don't know in which one of them me or my daughter will die."

Abu Ahmed, 41, bought three airline tickets to Amman, Jordan, for his family. Although he is a member of Baghdad's electoral commission, he said he planned to leave within days.

"I will not stay in Baghdad during the election," Abu Ahmed said. He said that when he arrived home last week, three strange men in a blue sedan were waiting outside and one of them put a knife to his neck.
"I think that was enough warning for me," he said.

Sudad, a travel agent, said she, too, would leave - if she did not have so much business making departure arrangements for everyone else.
Asked if she intended to vote, she just laughed and said, "Come on."

Many folks are too scared to vote and too frightened to even be in Iraq during the election period. Many employers are even helping their employees to obtain visas to exit the country during this period.

Candidates campaign in fear of a bullet or a knife any second:

One of the monarchist party's candidates, Muatasim Idris, who works for an engineering firm:
His campaign, like many, is a subdued one: no speeches, no rallies and no meetings. Holding out his hand, the 35-year-old Idris ticked off the threats he would face campaigning: He could be targeted in a bombing, his car could be stolen, his family could be threatened. Come election day, he said, he expects dozens of families in his neighborhood to abandon their houses near schools, where polling stations may be set up.
"I'm a moving target," Idris said, with a wry smile. "I only campaign among the people I trust -- family and friends."

One has to wonder just how many folks will vote when to do so is to risk one's life. The message is quite clear: "Vote and you die."

I am hoping the elections will be cancelled.

Lafayette

I don't think they will be. If the elections killed half of what remains of the Iraqi people, they would still go on to try and convince people Iraq is getting "better" and that democracy is being spread. One of my favorite signs from today's inauguration:

BUSH DANCES WHILE MOTHERS MOURN

There will be many more mothers mourning before it is over but hey, no wmd, no signs wmd were smuggled out of Iraq, and no ties to al-Qaeda, but in return for seeing their country demolished the Iraqi people get these lovely sham elections.

Intbel

Intbel

Washington - 22 January:

The Americans think they are playing it clever.
Everywhere now they are rhetorically proclaiming 'freedom' and 'democracy' but the realities are such things as a decade of genocidal bombing/sanctions/invasion of Iraq, the imprisonment and dispossession of the Palestinians, the historic destruction of Fallujah and Babylon, on and on.

Even as the Americans keep proclaiming their support for a 'Palestinian State' the realities are now that nothing other than a series of Israeli-army surrounded Palestinian Bantustans is any longer possible west of the Jordan River -- just what Ariel Sharon and the Zionists have planned for decades. Even as the Americans keep proclaiming their demand to bring 'Democracy to the Middle East' the reality is they have been the prime promoters of tyranny throughout the region for generations since World War II -- from the Shah of Iran to the Royal Families of the Gulf to the Hashemite dynasty in Jordan to the military police-states of Egypt and Pakistan, to the unique case of the nuclear armed Jewish State of Israel.

Now, having destroyed Iraq, with an estimated 1.5-million deaths in the past 15 years, and having brought that once powerful and rich Arab country to the brink of an escalating Civil War, the Americans and the Brits are actually looking for a way out of the horrendous mess they have wrought. At the same time they are preparing to use still more force and money to bring about 'regime change' or compliance in both Iran and Syria as the modern-day crusade proceeds masked by the ad nauseum repetition of the simple propaganda slogans tied to now meaningless words 'Democracy' and 'Freedom'.

But when it comes to the great country of Iran, it will not be a repeat of Iraq. The Americans are now rushing to further escalate their regional military and 'intelligence' capabilities -- always in close coordination with Israel whether that crucial part of the equation makes it to the daily news or not.

Soon attempts will escalate still further to bring about either a 'regime change' by coup in Tehran, or by forcing those in power INTO phpbb_compliance with the dictate coming from Washington and Israel. But if these CIA and 'political' attempts continue to fail then the full technological superiority of the U.S. to precision bomb military sites throughout Iran, and possibly Syria as well, could well be used soon, regardless of what the rest of the world thinks and regardless of how mega-dangerous such a developement will be for 'international stability' and world order.