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“Elections”
and other Deceptions in Iraq
By Dahr Jamail
10/18/05 "Iraq
Dispatches" -- -- Just before Saturday’s
so-called constitutional referendum vote in occupied Iraq, one
of my close friends in Baghdad wrote me, “I would like to point
out that we are three days away from the referendum, yet very
large sectors of Iraqi people couldn’t receive part of the five
million copies [of the constitution] from the UN, ie- they will
not know what the constitution contains. Subsequently, they will
vote according to their backgrounds or religious or political
preferences. Many people who will vote yes do not know why they
will vote yes...what kind of vote is this?”
The vote had many similarities to the farce which took place on
January 30-aside from a repeat of the draconian measures to
provide security and quite a large dose of propaganda; we once
again have what already appears to be rampant election fraud.
Figures provided by several governorates have required Iraq’s
independent electoral commission (IEC) to order (under heavy
Sunni political pressure) “re-examination, comparison and
verification because they [voter turnout figures] are relatively
high compared with international averages for elections” of this
kind; according to a statement made by the IEC on Monday.
This occurred rather inconveniently after US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice’s nearly instantaneous belief that the
constitution “has probably been passed.”
I have little doubt that the constitution will still be passed,
despite what the IEC referred to in findings showing “that
figures from most provinces were too high,” referencing voter
turnout. Not surprisingly, a source close to the commission
stated, “The problems are not in Sunni Arab zones,” as reported
by Al-Jazeera.
Huge discrepancies are already reported in the Nineveh
governorate, which includes Mosul, showing that while sources
close to the IEC were quoted saying that 55% of the voters there
voted against the constitution, Abd al-Razaq al-Jiburi, the
secretary general of the Iraqi Independent Front said, “I have
been informed by an employee of the electoral high commission in
Mosul that the voting for the constitution has been ‘no.’”
He went on to add that his sources within the IEC said the “no”
vote in Nineveh ranged between 75-80%. This is a critical
governorate vote, with Diyala and Salahedin governorates already
appearing to have decisively rejected the constitution, despite
US military repression with ongoing operations there, as well as
in other predominantly Sunni governorates.
Keep in mind that the draft constitution can be rejected by a
2/3 “no” vote occurring in three governorates.
How many people in the US will actually understand what is
happening in Iraq regarding this referendum vote? Most likely
not many when we consider the ongoing machinations occurring in
US mainstream media outlets. One of my friends in Baghdad who is
working by gathering information for one of these sources wrote
me recently, “By the way, I asked them to omit my name as a
contributor to their articles because the journalists they have
writing them are not accurately reporting the views of Iraqis on
the ground.”
He concluded his email with, “Everybody from the family is good.
Life goes on as usual between the explosions. It is God who
saves us.”
As usual, it isn’t only the Iraqis who are suffering from the
illegal occupation of their country. A National Guard soldier
who has been in Iraq for nearly a year writes me, “I needn’t
tell you…how messed up everything over here is. Regardless of
the intentions of most soldiers to do a good job and do what’s
right, the organizational structure of our presence here makes
it very difficult. The nature of the conflict--in terms of the
insurgency, the attitude of our leadership, and the demands
placed on soldiers because of numbers and resources—requires
aggression where compassion and understanding are necessary. And
this is against a background of profiteering by KBR and other
contractors who are quite honestly raiding the American Treasury
in the name of “providing services.” I was opposed to this war
from the start; what I’ve seen has deepened that opposition into
anger, anger over the exploitation of both American soldiers and
third-country nationals for vain and venal reasons.”
A perfect example of the aggression he refers to occurred in
Ramadi yesterday. Residents claimed that several people,
including children, were congregating around the site where a US
military vehicle was destroyed and five soldiers were killed by
a roadside bomb on election day.
US warplanes conducted a strike on the crowd of two dozen people
which had gathered to look at the wreckage and strip it for
scrap metal. The military claimed that they were setting another
roadside bomb in the same location.
Dr. Bassem al-Dulaimi at the main hospital reported that he
received 25 dead bodies which were the result of US aerial
bombings. Other doctors and Iraqi police officers reported that
the dead were all civilians, including children.
At least 14 other Iraqis were killed in US air strikes on a
nearby village.
The US army stated that the air strikes conducted by US
warplanes and helicopters killed 70 “terrorists” during the air
strikes in Ramadi and surrounding locales, and also said that
not one civilian was killed due to their use of precision
weapons.
Another doctor at Ramadi General Hospital who was tending to the
dead and wounded told reporters, “They are not terrorists. They
were ordinary people who were bombed by airplanes.”
Meanwhile, a delusional Mr. Bush told reporters during a recent
meeting with the Bulgarian President, “The way forward [in Iraq]
is clear. The political process will continue, with a
constitution, if finally ratified. And then an election, coupled
with a security plan that continues to train Iraqis so they do
the fight.”
Bush is “staying the course” with his propaganda line of getting
the Iraqi army trained before the US can withdraw, despite his
top US commander in Iraq, US Army General George Casey,
disclosing to the Senate Armed Services Committee on September
29th that only one Iraqi battalion was capable of operating
independently.
But facts don’t sway our “resolute” Mr. Bush, who then on
October 6th during a speech to the National Endowment for
Democracy said, “Today there are more than 80 Iraqi army
battalions fighting the insurgency alongside our forces.”
So rather than listening to the delusions of Mr. Bush or the
prophesies of Condoleeza Rice, let us keep our eyes on the
facts. Within the last week we’ve had clashes on the border of
Syria between the Syrian Army and US military; the toll of dead
US soldiers is now at least 1,976…with at least 23 dead in just
the last nine days and ten times that number wounded, with over
110 dead Iraqi civilians in the same time period. And, lest we
forget, there is no timetable for withdrawal.
Copyright Dahr Jamail
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