Do u feel better about Iraq now?
 

I must say that even the left wing press here have said that today/yesterday was, overall, a success. From what I have seen a lot of the Middle East DO want democracy.

Has GW won a few of you over?

If I was at 10% pro GW before I may be 11% today... It could come crashing down later though.

Nope. Still think he is an ass.

Why because Iraq held an election? Nope, I am still of the feeling we never should of invaded another country in the first place. Though I do feel we need to stay and take care of shit since we got our ass envolved.

no and never

'democracy' has a new meaning.

Does anybody think that the election was fair?

same here

I wouldn't want to be one of the elected officials. They may as well paint a big red "X" on their chests.

Hahaha, no. :1orglaugh

Of course not.... but the last election, and it was compulsory to vote, was in Iraq

The only option was Sadam.... and most of them have only known that option.

I still hate Bush but he turned my head today... nothing more

Potentially more fair than ours is (no I am not disputing Bush won with our electorial system).

If democracy holds up in Iraq it will set a good example for other arab countries.

agreed, but the nature of Islam would hold that theocracies RULE....


same in the US as of late...either you believe and love the MAN/GOD hay-sus or you are a fucking EVIL-DOER...

The other arab nations will be looking at the success or failure of the new government. Hopefully Bush doesn't get nuts and invade Iran. Enough is enough already. :disgust

The way I see it is that Past Presidents, world leaders, religious leaders and even misguided rappers have been talking about peace in the middle east for 100 years it seems.

Until recently, it has been all talk.

Finally, someone has started the process to bring peace to that part of the globe.


To say starting that war was the wrong way to do it is like telling your surgeon to remove your tumor witout using a scapel.

The world will be different from now on.

hold an election is easy. people still died, and people still voted. Now lets see if any new government has any power over the people, or if its another afghanastan where the leader is limited to the city of Kubal or risk being killed. thats the hard part.

Interesting point of view.......good idea. The only issue is that GWB is not the person to do it. Who then? mother T? Princess Di? Howard Stern? Ali G?

Well the result is yet to be seen. not yet.

damian2001 wrote:

I must say that even the left wing press here have said that today/yesterday was, overall, a success. From what I have seen a lot of the Middle East DO want democracy.

Has GW won a few of you over?
++++++++++++++++++++++++

Yes, I would get on my knees for GWB.

Iraqi citizens and expatriates were crying tears of joy about being able to vote, saying that it was one of the greatest days of their country.

We take way too much for granted here in the USA.

That was on Fox or CNN?

President Bush has done a hell of a job so far.

Imagine, a president that says what he is going to do and then does it.

Half the country is longing for the days that their president embarassed them by molesting fat thong wearing interns inbetween opportunities to cut the military budget.

I agree. It's only too bad that Iraq will be pillaged for resources and left to fend for themselves. If all proceeds were to be re-invested into Iraq, this would be a VERY different affair. Unfortunately, this nation is being sold off in chunks. Ultimate model (Manifestation?) of privitization. where does that leave the citizens? Naomi Klien wrote a very insightful article in Iraq about the reality - Factories cannot get materials, workers are laid off, 'insurgents' (people who want dignity and food) rise. you can't leave citizens out of the process. by allowing outside people (Haliburton and other multinationals) to set up shop and exclude the very people they 'set free'.

But I agree. Bush did what he said he would. I wish he hadn't lied about the reasons.

So just because the Iraqies had an election , you guys figure killing 100,000+ innocent people (along with spending billions of $$$) is justified ?

Didn't the US try to install a US friendly gov. in Iran in the 60's (the Shah)?

Do you really think that even if democracy holds in Iraq (which, BTW could take decades) that the Royal-dictators of the world will all of a sudden relenquish their powers?

Another consequence of this is that now you have a majority (shiite) in power over a minority (sunni)... as time goes along the majority is gonna bear a grudge against the minority (see Rawanda 1994) and commit mass genocide.

Anyways I hope it(democracy) sticks so all this crap won't be in vain.

And GWB is still an idiot.

Not yet. I still think the country is unstable.

so true... I for one am glad someone is doing something. too leave it as it was is to just sit back and hope for the best........ya that would have worked.

the success of this expirement will be measured in the longevity of a stable governmental system in iraq.

before the flames start all I have to say is those people went to the polls even under treat of death. how many of you would vote in your own country if you had that shit over your head? That shows me those people really want this and are willing to do what it takes to have change in their country.

Yup, and that was after Iran had a thriving democracy but were giving too much business to the British.

I wonder how many "votes" where held in Vietnam during the US occupation?

Anyone who thinks that this is the beginning of a fairytale Iraqi democracy is quite deluded.

For the forseeable future Iraq is going to become as war torn as Afghanistan has been for the last 50 years. In the long run the victims are still going to be the Iraqi people who have just had several generations of civil war thrust upon them by Dubya et al.

Once this puppet government is installed the west is going to start sucking the oil out of Iraq and the Iraqi people will get nothing.

it was not a success, its all hype, did you watch the news last week?

last week they said 40% of those eligeble to vote registered, for the election, 60% of those who registered voted. so the total percentage who actually voted that were eligeble is actually was pretty low.

ya imagine that, I cant remember, why was it we invaded Iraq ?

You mean as long as their are tens of thousands of American troops, armored vehicles & tanks surrounding all the polling places everytime there is an election.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh Good one! :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

Late breaking news recycled again by Fox News!

At least in Iran, they were able to do the overthrow with just the CIA & Iran's military..didn't have to send U.S. troops into that country then.

He's prep'ing us for Iran

for me I am a bit of a pessimist. Not about Bush in this case ( although I still don't like him ) but about the future of the region.

Worst case scenerio: The radical shiites vote in a majority who will then put a radical in the presidents office ( or whatever they are going to call the head fo the country ) and he tells the US to get the hell out. So we have little choice then but to leave. So the radicals are in charge the insurgence continues and eventually either this leader or one that overthrows this leader and takes over runs the country like a dictatorship and we are pretty much back to square 1 again.

best case scenerio: the Iraqi people elect a resonable representive. They have some shiites and some sunniis and some kurds and they put a moderate into the presidents office and over the next 12-24 months we can pull all of our troops out of there. This is good for us, but make no mistake this will not bring democracy to the middle east. The middle east has two things that we, and much of the world, do not have. 1. an obscene seperation of wealth. Most countries there have little or no middle class there are the very rich and the very poor and with that comes a huge seperation in quality of eductation. The very poor learn to count and read the Koran, the very rich come to america and go to harvard to lean how to run the country. And 2. the government still controls the TV and Radio and Press. Do you think the stories of Iraqi democracy are making it to Joe Arab sitting in his mud brick house in Western Syria? No, but he is being told how bad we are. While Iraq may have something that, at least somewhat, resembles a democracy they will still be looked upon by many of the other arab nations as puppet of the United States. In the end what we do in Iraq will have little effect on the rest of the middle east because when it's all over we still back Isreal and to the arabs Isreal = the devil which makes us the devils best friend.

I hopeful for peace someday but I am a realist. That part of the world has known nothing but blood and violence since the begining of recorded history. there is no reason to belive it will change now.

I dont really trust how the election was run

Well, the UN and all the observers seem to think it was fair. And then there's the Iraqis too.

damn, they just showed this on cnn, fuckin unbelievable... nukes found in iraq

http://www.cnn.com/2005/ALLPOLITICS/01/30/iraq.nukes/index.html