24 Hours: Iraq Votes.

perhaps a small start would be to admit that a war is sometimes a necessary evil but NEVER under any circumstances moral.

Of course that would make it more difficult for the shepherd to herd the sheep....

and there you have it.....mexican standoff...no movement possible...

quote="Brandon9000 You're now on record as favoring a good dictatorship over a democracy in Iraq

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed"
-- American Declaration of Independence

Brandon9000 wrote:

You're now on record as favoring a good dictatorship over a democracy in Iraq.

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed"
-- American Declaration of Independence

Well Yeah, I suppose you could say that, like I said above you can blame my inherent stupidity, on the other hand what I would like to see is for the Iraqi people to have the civil rights they deserve regardless of what kind of label to use for the government (I used the label "benevolent dictatorship) But I hear you loud and clear Brandon when you say that "democracy" is what's important while omitting the well being of the people themselves. So lets just compromise and call it a "republic."

Brand X wrote:

I didn't see any guns pointed at the people going to the polls, unless they were insurgent guns.

The term "insurgent" is really being misused these days.

The Viet Cong would be an example of a real insurgency, i.e. some sort of a popular movement aimed at the overthrow of a government, with significant popular support.

The people trying to halt the march of progress in Iraq do not qualify. All they amount to is a handfull leftover diehard baathists and fedayeen saddam, who are universally hated by the Iraqi people. The fedayeen-saddam have no options and no other country likely to take them in. Their choices are death or the re-subjugation of the country they brutalized for 30 years, and they are presently in the process of being killed out. The only thing making it take as long as it has is the support from Syria and Iran and baathist enclaves in those countries, and the financial resources of Saddam Hussein's former govt. which the UN gave Hussein an extra six months to stash and hide.

IRAQ IS GOING TO BE JUST FINE

Iraq's First Free Election Since 1953 Draws 8 Million (Update1)
Jan. 30 (Bloomberg) -- As many as 8 million Iraqis voted today for a National Assembly in defiance of attacks and threats of violence by insurgents, and carried out the country's first democratic election since 1953.

``The streets of Baghdad were not soaked with blood,'' said Farid Ayar, spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq, at a Baghdad news conference broadcast by Cable News Network as polls closed. The commission said turnout was about 60 percent, down from an earlier estimate of 72 percent.

In Washington, President George W. Bush said in televised remarks that the election was a ``resounding success'' and ``the world is hearing the voice of freedom from the Middle East.'' British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush's main ally in Iraq, later praised the ``courage'' of Iraqi voters.

Iraqis voted for a 275-member assembly that will draft a permanent constitution and prepare for a general election at the end of the year. Secular parties such as interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqi List coalition and the Kurdish Alliance may have gained the most support, according to interviews with voters and an opinion poll.

35 Dead

Suicide bombings and mortar attacks at polling stations in Baghdad, Mosul and Baqubah left as many as 35 people dead, the Associated Press reported. An attack on the home of Justice Minister Malek Douhan al-Hassan killed a guard and injured four people, Agence France-Presse said. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jardanian-born terrorist linked to al-Qaeda, claimed responsibility for 13 of the attacks, according to AFP.

``This is a first step, not the last step, on the road to democracy,'' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview in Washington with Fox News. ``Everybody believes it's better than expected.'

Turnout ran as high as 80 percent in the southern Shiite cities of Najaf and Basra, the United Arab Emirates-based television channel al-Arabiya reported late today, citing its correspondents in those areas.

Polling places in parts of the Sunni Muslim stronghold of west-central Iraq either didn't open or had few voters show up, according to residents cited by AP. There were no official figures yet on the percentage of registered voters who cast ballots in those areas. Other assessments were upbeat.

``I hear that the turnout in Mosul and in Fallujah has been far greater than we had expected, which is a very encouraging thing,'' Adnan Pachachi, a former Iraqi foreign minister who heads the Iraqi Independent Democrats slate of candidates, said on CNN. Mosul, in northern Iraq, and Fallujah, west of Baghdad, have produced some of the deadliest violence by rebels.

Allawi Backing

A total of 5,230 polling centers were opened, said Ayar of the Electoral Commission. Initial results will be released in stages during the next six days, and the final result will be announced within 10 days, he said.

Allawi, named interim leader in June 2004 by the U.S.-backed Iraq Governing Council, may be a victor because many voters say he's able to defeat the insurgency that followed the ouster of Saddam Hussein in March 2003 by U.S.-led forces. The election prompted discussion among Iraqis, and officials in the U.S. and the U.K., about a timetable for withdrawing troops.

`Man in Charge'

``Allawi is portraying himself as the man in charge, the strong man,'' said Yahia Said, research fellow in the Middle East department at the London School of Economics, in a Jan. 25 telephone interview. ``People will back him the same way they backed Bush for his war on terror.''

A poll by the International Republican Institute, a nonpartisan U.S. research group, showed that about 60 percent of Iraqis say Allawi, a Shiite, has been effective since taking office. The survey was based on 1,848 valid interviews conducted from Jan. 13 to Jan. 24 in 15 of Iraq's 18 provinces and had a margin or error of three percentage points.

``Today is the birth of a new Iraq,'' Ibrahim al-Jafari, Islamic Dawa Party member and interim vice-president, said in a broadcast carried live by al-Jazeera from Baghdad. ``Today is the first time that I practice my legal right in voting. Our main concern is that this leads to peace and the prevention of any further bloodshed.''

Security Steps

The interim Iraqi government stepped up security measures to safeguard voters, including extending a nationwide state of emergency for 30 days. Iraq also closed its borders and restricted movement across the country today and tomorrow.

```There have been some incidents,'' Edward Chaplin, Britain's ambassador to Iraq, said in an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. in Baghdad. ``Any incident is regrettable but the fact is that no act of violence has succeeded in closing any polling station.''

A total of 7,785 men and women registered to run for the assembly, representing 111 entities, including political parties and coalition and individual candidates. Iraq is treated as one constituency and members of the assembly will be elected according to the proportional vote their slates receive. Iraqis also voted today for 18 provincial councils and a 105-member regional parliament in the Kurdish north.

Don't despair The grown-ups are in control.