As some of you already know, there are several Iraqi bloggers in Cyberspace. Today, with some mixed feelings, I went to several blogs to read up on the election that’s taking place in Iraq. I came across a few Iraqi blogs. Some Iraqis are feeling very positively about the current events in their country.
Democracy in Iraq is here!
“I am happy to report…no I am honored to report that I have cast my ballot in our election. It is such an amazing feeling to be able to have some control over the destiny of my nation, a feeling I have not known before! I was one of the first ones to report to our local voting station, and I placed my vote, my stained finger is proof (The authorities are using such a system to make sure people do not vote twice). I was not the only one to show up at the opening of the voting area, there were at least a dozen other Iraqis waiting to take part in this momentous event, and as I left, I saw tens more file in.
I have changed the header of my page to reflect the new, improved, democratic Iraq. The turnout has been higher than expected, even Yahoo had an article reflecting this. I link it below. The article states that turnout was about 75%, so I believe it was in reality somewhat higher. And all this despite the fact that the terrorists did indeed carry out attacks, but as we all knew, it did not stop Iraqis!! People do not get scared that easily when they are so close to their goal.
It is early in the day, but I am confident of the turnout of the vote. The terrorists have not scared us. They made some attempts at disrupting things yesterday when they attacked an American building, and in attacking balloting areas, but it has not been effective. People are going to vote. From the conversations I have had with people across Baghdad, it looks like the Iraqiya list is going to come out on top. But this is speculation and is not as important as the fact that we are voting as a nation now. No more of the shams that Saddam put us through, no more of not having control over the political future, it ends today.
It will be a day forever remembered. My voting was only a simple act, I went, I identified myself, got my finger stained, filled out a ballot, and dropped it in a box. It is not a complex or grand process to the eye, but it is one that I will forever remember and will recount to my children, and their children. And God willing it will be remembered through the ages.”
An Iraqi moved to tears from voting the very first time.
On GOPBloggers.Com, you can find Americans showing their support for the Iraqis by painting their index finger blue. This all started from one little girl named Shelby Dangerfield.
As mentioned in Slant Point.Com, the authors of Liberal blogs didn’t make much mention of the Iraqi election.
Here are some photos from Election Day in Iraq:
As a sign of respect, an Iraqi soldier crawls to the polling station.
Security guards are searching the women for weapons.
As there was no electricity at the time, the pollers had to resort to using a lantern to vote.
Here are Iraqi soldiers voting in Baghdad.
And the famous ink-stained finger.
Below is a demographical view of “who” voted “where”.
Watch the video here.
All photos courtesy of The Washington Post.Com
In “diary-style” another Iraqi shared some positive thoughts about these events in his blog.
“Just got back from the local voting station in my ‘hood, Karada, which is a heavily Shi’a neighborhood. The polling took place in the Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim High School, named for the former leader of the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq. The security for the neighborhood is being handled by Iraqi Police, New Iraqi Army and Badr/SCIRI militiamen. And—quelle surprise!—the list topped by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, the current leader of SCIRI and the brother of Muhammad Baqr al-Hakim, is the favored list. Almost everyone is voting for that one in this area. But for all that, there were a lot of women, and everyone looked happier than I’ve seen them in months.There were no Americans in sight, except for the Apache choppers circling above.
Interesting. I’m watching CNN International, and the shots of long lines and happy voters are almost all coming from Iraqi Kurdistan where the voters are motivated and the environment is (relatively) safe. The rub is that CNN is not identifying the images as coming from Kurdistan; the only way I knew it was from up north was the single shot of someone waving a Kurdish flag. But if you don’t know what the flag looks like (red, white and green bars with a yellow starburst in the center), as I suspect most Americans don’t, you wouldn’t know the context of these images. Shi’ites are also coming out in droves in the south. But Sunnis are staying home. I will be surprised if the Sunni vote hits double digits at this point.
Just got back from a couple of polling stations. Things have gone very smoothly, all things considered. Everyone out on the streets is happy, even the Iraqi security forces who will laugh and joke with journalists—the first time they’ve done it in months. I saw one American convoy patrolling around, but that was it. A few American choppers. But the promise to put the Iraqis front and center seemed to have been kept.
“It’s the first time for the Iraqis to express their opinions,” her father said. “It’s the greatest national eid (holiday) for us.”
“I feel like a free man,” said Muhammad Abad al-Badawi, a shopkeeper who had just finished voting. “For the last 35 years, we were electing nothing. They were fake elections.” He’s supporting Allawi, “because he’s a decent man” and he will fix the security situation.”
Well folks, that’s the good news. And I’m sure there’s more. Yet, there are some Iraqis not too very pleased about the recent change in Iraq.
An Iraqi woman, Houzan Mahmoud, bodly states her discontentment.
“I am an Iraqi woman, and I am boycotting Sunday’s elections. Women who do vote will be voting for an enslaved future. Surely, say those who support these elections, after decades of tyranny, here at last is a form of democracy, imperfect, but democracy nevertheless?
In reality, these elections are, for Iraq’s women, little more than a cruel joke. Amid the suicide attacks, kidnappings and US-led military assaults of the 20-odd months since Saddam’s fall, the little-reported phenomenon is the sharp increase in the persecution of Iraqi women. Women are the new victims of Islamic groups intent on restoring a medieval barbarity and of a political establishment that cares little for women’s empowerment.
Having for years enjoyed greater rights than other women in the Middle East, women in Iraq are now losing even their basic freedoms. The right to choose their clothes, the right to love or marry whom they want. Of course women suffered under Saddam. I fled his cruel regime. I personally witnessed much brutality, but the subjugation of women was never a goal of the Baath party. What we are seeing now is deeply worrying: a reviled occupation and an openly reactionary Islamic armed insurrection combining to take Iraq into a new dark age….”
You can read the rest of her story here as she goes into more detail.
Let’s see, well, this election in Iraq isn’t bad news, right? Aside from approximately 20 suicide bombings and some disgruntled Iraqis, from what I’m gathering, the majority of the Iraqis seem pleased about having been able to vote for the first time, and the hope for a democratic nation becomes a little more real in their eyes. I’d be most curious to see the outcome of all this.
Regardless of this positive experience for the Iraqis, I still don’t see all this worth the enormous amount of lives lost to accomplish this. I guess that how the liberal mind works? Some Republicans argue that we need to accomplish important goals even if innocent people have to die. Why does this not sit so well for me? Yes, I do see Iraqis happy. There is real hope for the future in Iraq, but I just cannot get myself past the deaths. The deaths of not only our men, but of the innocent Iraqis, themselves.
One more thing, not of less importance, that drives me crazy is the fact that there are ample countries out there under a crazy operated government where its people are suffering tremendously. Is President Bush going to straighten those countries out to?
Talk about WMD… can you say … N. Korea? If we need to fix any country, N. Korea should have been number one priority. Don’t you agree?
Iraq is going to be under a different leader soon. Who’s to say that leader is going to be any better than Sadaan? Look at Cuba and Haiti? We helped them get a new leader, and there countries are no better off.
In any event, what’s done is done. You can’t stop a war when it’s already happened and still going on. All we have to look forward to is some peace in Iraq. I’m just waiting for the next page to turn.
