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01/28/2005:

"In Violence-Prone Mosul, Voters Will Need a Shield of Snipers"

MOSUL, Iraq, Jan. 27 - Snipers are taking up positions across Mosul. The concrete barriers around the voting sites are up. The actual polling stations are being opened, replacing the decoys set up to deceive the insurgents.

An election will be held Sunday in this violence-racked city of 1.6 million, but it remains an open question here - as in so many other Sunni Arab cities where the insurgent presence is strong - whether enough people will brave the dangers to vote in significant numbers.

"Mosul is a hot spot," said Salem Isa, the head of security for Nineveh Province. "We have special security plans and will try to take all the possible steps to get them to the boxes peacefully."

It will not be easy. Even handling election materials is considered so dangerous that ballots and ballot boxes will be distributed to the 80 polling centers by armored American military convoys. "The military has to do it because of the security situation," said Khaled Kazar, the head of the elections commission here. "No one would ever volunteer to move this stuff."
Full Article: nytimes.com

I suppose the point of this horrible farce is to assail us with images of the Iraqi people risking life and limb to embrace the democratic process. Since they are not 'us,' subjecting them to unacceptable risk does not factor into anyone's thinking. PM Allawi, aka 'Saddam-lite' seems unconcerned, so it's full speed ahead for this 'imperfect election,' in which people will not know where to vote until election day, or indeed even who they will be voting for. It seems like no matter how slipshod, reckless, or deadly, the point is just to VOTE dammit, as this unwieldy vehicle careens from point a to b so the US can crow for a few days about this historic and inspiring occasion and the victory of freedom and so on and so forth. I have no doubt at all that, given a choice, humans choose political freedom. But this election really has nothing to do with that.

Washington's Ballots (and Bullets)--Iraq's Non-Election
By Robert Jensen and Pat Youngblood

Predictably, the U.S. news media are full of discussion and debate about this weekend's election in Iraq. Unfortunately, virtually all the commentary misses a simple point: There will be no "election" on Jan. 30 in Iraq, if that term is meant to suggest an even remotely democratic process.

Many Iraqis casting votes will be understandably grateful for the opportunity. But the conditions under which those votes will be cast -- as well as the larger context -- bear more similarity to a slowly unfolding hostage tragedy than an exercise in democracy. We refer not to the hostages taken by various armed factions in Iraq, but the way in which U.S. policymakers are holding the entire Iraqi population hostage to U.S. designs for domination of the region.
Full Article: counterpunch.org