Iraqi elections this week! PROGRESS!!

Free elections are taking place today in Iraq. If we were not making progress in Iraq, I would not be creating this post. So far, we have met every political milestone in Iraq. This is another step bringing us closer to winning the war on terror not backward.

What is happening this week is worth more to us than 1,000 killed U.S. soldiers is to the insurgents. We are winning! The insurgents are losing

I would like to reiterate this to those on this board who are oblivious to how big a victory this is.

And if one group dosen't like what the other group elected? Civil war time, mark my words...

I'm sorry Bob but you should know better than to think that anyone on here wants to hear the TRUTH!! No, they don't want to hear about free elections, womens rights, schools opening, etc. They'd rather hear what little bad news comes out of Iraq and has been maginified by the media 10-fold.

Just as you never hear about planes landing safely at the airport- you only hear about planes crashing. People see bad things on the news all day and think that we're losing the war and that all hell is about to break loose. Fortunately that's just not the case. Things are going a lot better in Iraq and a lot of progress is being made. You can't ignore the recent poll saying that 70% of Iraqis say that things are going good. You'd rather ignore that and listen to what Katie Couric tells you is happening on the ground, instead of listening to those who are actually there day to day.

Soldier morale couldn't be higher over there. Sure, it's not all peaches and cream. But when I read some of the posts on here and when I see comparisons to Vietnam and people saying that our soldiers have fought and died for nothing, it just makes me sick to our stomach.

Keep reporting the good news in Iraq Bob! And be thankful that our President is guided by what is right and not what the polls tell him!

A bandaid on an open gash won't stop the bleeding.

The last 'free' election did wonders for peace in Iraq didn't it.

And I will continue to report our progress in Iraq! Becuase it cant be ignored or denied. IT is happening, and this week was a huge victory and awesome news, much more awesome than knowing schools have opened etc (thats awesome too).

I think its funny that people compare it to Vietnam, its such a terrible analagy, in fact, Iraq is more of the opposite of what happened in Vietnam. In Vietnam, we lost 58,000 soldiers. In Iraq, so far, we have only lost 2,100, thats only 3% of what we lost in Vietnam! Right now, we have lost only 1% of the average number of troops present in Iraq since the invasion began. 1% is incredibly small casualty rate. a randomly selected soldier has a 1% chance of being killed in Iraq, which are some very favorable odds. That definitely was not the case in Vietnam. And predicting that our casualty rate is unlikely to change much overtime is definitly a justified prediction. Its astronomically improbable that we will ever lose anything near 58,000 soldiers in Iraq. This is no Vietnam!

Its too bad alot people on here cant understand that democracy doesnt happen over night nor is it handed out with milk and cookies. No one should expect the insurgents to go away after this weeks elections are over. The victories and progress we make arent black and white where either we won the war or we didnt. Just becuase insurgents are still around doesnt mean its not a victory at all. THis week is progress, one step closer to winning the war, and stablizing Iraq. Its not over, but we are closer to our destination. And if we stay in Iraq, it is inevitable we will get there.

[edit on 14-12-2005 by bob2000]

MSNBC just reported that 7 minutes into voting a huge explosion just occurred in Baghdad. No details yet but they are checking into the story to follow up.

I figured the terrorist would not let this one go by without trying to stop them. I hope this draws out more voters. While I did not agree with the war I certainly agree with Iraqis getting their own elected government.

This was stated on Tucker Carlsons show.

CNN says also explosions in Ramadi and Baghdad

[edit on 12/14/2005 by nativeokie]

Originally posted by nativeokie
MSNBC just reported that 7 minutes into voting a huge explosion just occurred in Baghdad. No details yet but they are checking into the story to follow up.

I figured the terrorist would not let this one go by without trying to stop them. I hope this draws out more voters. While I did not agree with the war I certainly agree with Iraqis getting their own elected government.

This was stated on Tucker Carlsons show.

CNN says also explosions in Ramadi and Baghdad

[edit on 12/14/2005 by nativeokie]

That does not sound good. I hope no one died and if they did I hope it was few because this will scare some people off for sure.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

[edit on 14-12-2005 by trIckz_R_fO_kIdz]

While I did not agree with the war I certainly agree with Iraqis getting their own elected government.

Amen to that.
I hope the voting grows smoothly and with minimal violence.

I am skeptical however that simply holding elections is going to do much to defang the insurgency. I hope it will, but I wouldn't put much money on it.

[edit on 12/15/05 by xmotex]

The Iraqi poeple can choose to vote between more then 300 political parties and more then 7000 candidates.

Most of them are religious politic parties, who mainly want the "Sharia" to be enforced. How this will change iraq for the good is beyond me.... the situation for women in Iraq, and any ohter minority group there will be getting worse once this sharia is in effect.

So basicly, this entire "free democratic election" won't bring Iraq much good, if anything, it will only divide the country more.

If you think Iraq is on the path to democracy based on this "election" your very naive or just plain blind to the facts.
This by itself should set the alarm bells off. link
Just about every mistake possible was made in the post war occupation.
The means of goverance arent in place you cant hold a roof up without a soild foundation. I cant fathom why power was handed over to the Iraqi government so soon it should have been a gradual process over 15 -20 years.

And you cant blame the liberal media I had a interesting conversion with a class mate who is a Iraqi and has been in the countrie recently.
I asked him is there a leader who can unite Iraq?
A. no
He also agreed with my coments concerning the roof being held up without a foundation. I havnt posted the exact words of the conversation but you get the general idea.
Tell me who should I take the word of right wing members of the media who dont understand the very make up of Iraq or a someone who is from Iraq and understands the make up of the country?

A majority of Iraqui Muslims actually wait for thier cleric to tell them who to vote for... thats democracy for ya.

Originally posted by ihatescifi
A majority of Iraqui Muslims actually wait for thier cleric to tell them who to vote for... thats democracy for ya.

Do you not base who your going to vote for off of what you see, hear, read, and are told?
The point here is that the Iraqi people are voting.
Amazing that when Saddam had an alleged election, he garnered 99.96% of the vote. I wonder why? Now that is real democracy in action, huh? Not.






seekerof

[edit on 15-12-2005 by Seekerof]

That was 2 years ago! Are you *not reading the paper* or is it that you're too brainwashed by Rush Limbaugh?

2278 military dead, as of last monday!!! So now you're going to tell me that because people can vote there, it will significantly reduce the uprisings and abductions in Iraq??? WHere are these four Christian activists, hey? WHEN HAVE THEY BEEN RELEASED???

This electoral system, and this whole government was imposed by M-I-L-I-T-A-R-Y F-O-R-C-E, don't you remember? Please stop telling us here about the wonderful progess of "democracy". Nobody needs that in a time where your President and his sbires can just do whatever they want with USA and the rest of the world, without even caring about the consequences of their dictatorial actions. Instead, go tell that fake crap to the families of all the soldiers who died there and all these peace activists who've been abducted and murdered by the Iraqi resistance.

*removed unnecessary drug reference*

[edit on 15-12-2005 by dbates]

Great!!

Now, all we have to do is kick out dictators in other countries and set up democracies, like the one we have here. (I thought the US was a democratic republic )

I got a few suggestions, like Jordan, N. Korea, Saudi Arabia...these places sure could use a "democracy..."

He meant 1000 dead, give or take 1500.

These threads always make me laugh. It seems that a majority of the herd has thrown common sense out the window. Think with your head and not your heart.

Peace

[edit on 15-12-2005 by Dr Love]

You idiots. Iraq having an election don't mean SQUAT! 500 BILLION dollars is not worth selecting the leader of Iraq when there's a ton of good all that money could do here at home. Of course, it is to the oil companies, but not the people of this country.

Also, are you people forgetting Saddam DIDN'T FUND THE TERRORIST THAT ATTACKED AMERICA????? Forgetting or just to stupid to have ever known? The "terrorist" weren't even in Iraq at the time of the invasion you stupid idiots. Bush admitted the other day that over 30,000 civilians have been killed. That's F'd up! What if China decided to come over here and start a "REGIME CHANGE" and started killing inocent civilians? I bet you'd change your mind then.

The real terroist are being funded from within the United States and until people realize that things will never change.

Unless Bush plans on taking over the middle east, why would he really sacrifice this much Amercian money, education, 2000 men, and basically our welfare for another country's possible happiness? The only explanation is Bush has other agendas, or he wants to take over the area.

Besides, why would a democracy make any sense? Who's to say the people won't start fighting with eachother? A republic or even dictatorship seems to make a lot more sense if they all really hate us as Bush has stated.

Originally posted by xpert11
If you think Iraq is on the path to democracy based on this "election" your very naive or just plain blind to the facts.
This by itself should set the alarm bells off. link

If you think Iraq is NOT closer to democracy due to this election YOU are naive and blind to the facts. Elections like this must happen before democracy can, duh! THey just did, so democracy has increased its probability of occuring. Think about it.

Just about every mistake possible was made in the post war occupation.
The means of goverance arent in place you cant hold a roof up without a soild foundation. I cant fathom why power was handed over to the Iraqi government so soon it should have been a gradual process over 15 -20 years.

You criticising as if you know better than our decision makers. You have no experience in sociology, politics or military, what would you know? You know nothing. But since you claim to be an expert, please tell me exactly what we have done wrong, and then tell the correct way to do it oh great expert.

And you cant blame the liberal media I had a interesting conversion with a class mate who is a Iraqi and has been in the countrie recently.
I asked him is there a leader who can unite Iraq?
A. no

Tell me who should I take the word of right wing members of the media who dont understand the very make up of Iraq or a someone who is from Iraq and understands the make up of the country?

um, thats easy. Your "Iraqi classmate example" is anecdotal. Your trying to make a prediction about the Iraqi populace's perception of the US progress based on ONE example? LOL give me a break. Thats hilarious how you try to make predictions based on ONE example.

Thats like me going up to ONE person and asking him if he likes to smoke cigarettes, and he says "yes", and then turning around and saying "EVERYONE likes to smoke cigarettes based on my example!" Do You have any Idea how wrong I would be? Saying everyone smokes based on one example? Thats is what you just did with your Iraqi classmate.

go take a course in statistics, and youll see why making predictions from one sample is one of THE DUMBEST THINGS you can do when trying to make overall predictions from a set of examples.

[edit on 15-12-2005 by bob2000]

The sad thing is that some of you almost seem glad when there is a bombing or when something goes wrong in Iraq, just so you can come on here and say "I told you so." Besides that sickening character flaw, you people exhibit the least amount of patience I've ever seen. No one ever said this process would be quick and painless. In fact, from Day 1 the Administration said that this War on Terror would be a long and drawn out process. I'm just thankful that your type of mentality never prevailed during WWII or we'd be saluting Hitler right now.

You guys will listen to any source so long as it backs your agenda. The funny part is how so many of you tried this tired act of "we're losing, let's leave now" in the beginning of the Aghanistan campaign. We heard the words "quagmire" and "Vietnam." But since that didn't pan out and those terms obviously didn't apply, you just moved on to the next war. I guess the idea of freeing some 50 million people (Iraq and Afghanistan) bothers you people in some sick way. I guess you think they're too medieval and uncivilized to ever have a functioning and peaceful democracy of their own. And it sickens you that hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on this effort rather than on your coveted welfare, food stamps, illegal immigrant healthcare and other useless and abused programs.

History will vindicate President Bush and the United States. And until such a time don't bother wasting your time and providing me with more of your leftist Bush-hating links!

It's not that I'm against the war. I'm against a lack of education, health, and morality in our people. We are a terrible civilization when it comes to appreciation of life, and spending billions on a war instead of helping our children will turn us into a failed Empire. That's what I'm concerned about. And if you think I'm an idiot, then you're simply not taking the time to look at the facts. Our jobs are going to foreigners while our teenagers are showing a lack of appreciation or motivation to succeed in their own lives. It's truly sickening, and I'd rather we focus on US rather than them. A happy people finds a way to survive. A foolish, ignorant people can never maintain power.

If you still think I'm a stupid kid, then explain the attitude at my school, Purdue University. Nobody cares! Maybe 5% of the undergraduates A. know what they want to do and B. have any valid reason for attending school. It's horrible, and I don't know what to do about it.

Maybe that's the government's plan. To take over the world while we become dumber and dumber, too ignorant to know, care, or be able to stop their malicious and greedy plans.

[edit on 15-12-2005 by Glooper23]