Forty-Seven Bodies Boycott Iraq Elections

[Barrett808]

Forty-Seven Bodies Boycott Iraq Elections
Published Thursday, November 18th, 2004
Mazen Ghazi

In what could cost the new Iraqi government its necessary legitimacy to win the hearts and minds of the people, forty-seven Sunni, Shiite, Turkoman and Christian bodies have so far declared their boycott for the general election slated for early next year, due to the grisly US attacks in Fallujah.

Concluding a one-day conference in the headquarters of the influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars in Baghdad’s Um Al-Qora mosque, a plethora of bodies representing Iraq’s religious mosaic agreed that the open-ended Fallujah offensive was an obstacle to an effective political participation.

They further said that the outcome of the election is settled in advance for the “collaborators” with the US occupation troops.

The conference is organized by the Iraqi National Founding Conference, a coalition of Sunni, Shiite and independent Iraqi figures.

Chief among those who inked the communiqué are the Association of Muslim Scholars, Sheikh Jawad Al-Khalsi, the secular National Arab Current, the Iraqi-Turkoman Front, the Democratic Christian Party and the communist People’s Union party.

(more)

http://www.world-crisis.com/news/1089_0_1_0_M/

[BeyondGeography]

1. Weird headline

given all the, um, dead bodies in Iraq.

[On the Road]

4. My Thought Exactly:

"Forty-Seven DEAD Bodies Boycott Election"?

[TahitiNut]

9. The word "Groups" would take no more headline space.

... and would reflect the content far more accurately. It's ham-handed.

[Nihil]

12. Did it make you read the article?

How many of us read the article to find out why it was only 47?

[central scrutinizer]

2. what, they don't want the US-approved stooges?

How ungrateful - and after we pulled down that statue of Saddam for them. They didn't really think they would get to control their own oil resources did they? Now that Bushco is safely ensconced for four more years his oil cronies are screaming - we want our cut and we want it now!!!

[flobee1kenobi]

3. that would be funny

W would probably be gushing and boasting that Iraq was such a sucess,
ther man ran unopposed!

[4_Legs_Good]

5. I don't think boycotting like this works

In the end, nobody really cares - at least in the world community. I mean lots of groups boycotted the Afghan elections, and nobody questions (in the world community) that the US stooge won by a large margin.

These guys need to ORGANIZE rather than boycott. Even if it's just creating a colaborating "Iraqi Opposition Party" - swallowing differences to make sure that US Stooges don't win the elections on name recognition and ballot box stuffing alone.

david

[wtmusic]

7. Mostly symbolic

but can be a powerful symbol within Iraq. Any attempt at creating an opposition party would be destroyed immediately.

[saigon68]

10. "The US stooge won" --- Please don't insult the Mayor of Kabul

Without all the machine gun toting support from his 500 Bilgewater INC mercenaries he would be a dirty Bidet cleaner at Buckingham Palace, or maybe Madame Ellen's Brothel the place where he picked up his phony British Accent.

[noamnety]

6. Sadly ironic

They can recognize that the outcome has already been determined by the US, but our own people here ... blind.

[__Inanna__]

11. Yes

and for this reason a boycott of the elections would deliver a stronger message to the world that maybe even RWers could grasp.

[purduejake]

8. Civil war??

Looks like civil war is ahead. We'll be there forever. The draft is coming. I have nothing to back this up, but it's my gut feeling.

[pig.]

13. taking bets on the heads of these bodies

and which one will roll first? maybe a kidnapping, sudden unexplainable heart attack? car bomb even?

[RedCon1]

14. Perhaps we should learn from their example

and boycott the 2008 elections since the outcomes of our elections are, apparently, determined in advance as well.

[0007]

15. How is the world will John Negroponte ever handle such

open rebellion? The "Death Squad Ambassador" Negroponte was ambassador to Honduras from 1981-1985. As such he supported and carried out a US-sponsored policy of violations to human rights and international law. Among other things he supervised the creation of the El Aguacate air base, where the US trained Nicaraguan Contras during the 1980's. The base was used as a secret detention and torture center, in August 2001 excavations at the base discovered the first of the corpses of the 185 people, including two Americans, who are thought to have been killed and buried at this base.

http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/negroponte/eng.html


Joh will win the hearts and minds of the Iraqis for sure.....