There was much better signal propagation the night before last, and the Iranian worldband radio station Voice of Justice (“for people around the world, especially Americans”) is still covering the Iraq elections.
Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. gave an interview [1MB, 8m27s] in which she said that the reason for the high turnout was that, “many Iraqis saw this election as a chance to vote for their hopes.” They hoped for more water, electricity and jobs, but most of all for, “an end to the US occupation.”
The message between the lines is that they’re false hopes. After all, “many Iraqis believe that this will lead to an end to the occupation” but, “so far there is no indication of that.”
But the real reason that it’s such a disater that this election was successful is that, “the main winner, I think, of this election, however, is going to be George Bush, who will use this election to claim legitimation of his occupation of Iraq.” In other words it doesn’t matter that these elections were made possible in the first place by Bush. The success of this election is just a stroke of good luck for him that is ultimately disatrous because Bush is wrong and was wrong all along.
Later in the broadcast, we hear Voice of Justice’s own opinions [940K, 7m40s] about “the Iraq occupation crisis” and the issues related to the election. Their angle is that the elections were hugely important for Iraq — but if only it wasn’t for those damn Americans! “Despite all threats from those affiliated to the United States, the interim government as well as popular groups and parties joined forces to hold a secure and great election nationwide.” But the Americans might have rigged the votes. “Some reports say there has been some collusion between some political parties that are [allied?] to US [policies?] with the occupation force in order to obtain the results that are favourable to them. That is why the election is prone to manipulation.”
Like Phyllis Bennis, Voice of Justice thinks that the sooner the Americans leave, the better. “Without the slightest doubt the election is the first step for the Iraqis to rid themselves of the plight [imposing?] them now. For Iraqi people have stayed under Saddam’s tyrannical rule for years, and under occupation for the past two years, January 30th 2005 is a day when they can pave the way for an end to occupation and lay the foundation of another Iraq,”
Iraq near civil war – Is it avoidable?
I have been hearing a lot on the news about Iraq nearing a civil war, and that it's only a few days away. Do you think there is still time to stop the inevitable? Or is it too late already?