(International Republican Institute) Poll Finds Most Iraqis Plan to Vote

[Robbien]

WASHINGTON - Nearly three-quarters of Iraqis say they "strongly intend" to vote in next month's pivotal elections, and a small majority believe the country is headed in the right direction, according to a major new poll of Iraqi attitudes.

The poll of nearly 2,200 people across most of Iraq found a resilient citizenry modestly hopeful that the Jan. 30 elections will improve life. Iraqis said pocketbook issues such as unemployment and health care are more pressing than the bloody insurgency that claims Iraqi and U.S. lives virtually every day.

<snip>

The poll didn't include the cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul, which have been centers of the insurgency. But 36 percent of those surveyed identified themselves as Sunni Muslims and 60 percent as Shiites, roughly in line with Iraq's religious make-up.

More than 41 percent of the Iraqis polled mistakenly believe they'll be voting for a president. Less than 29 percent responded correctly that the main election is for a transitional national assembly, or parliament.

http://www.newswatch50.com/news/national/story.aspx?content_id=8BF47821-CBF6-4A1A-A616-C9E6BC1DBA65

So the US taxpayer slush funded sister of National Endowment for Democracy (NED) took this poll. How likely would the poll give any results which were not in favor of Bush's Iraq election?

[Barrett808]

1. They must not have asked Riverbend

She says nobody she knows intends to vote.

[Skittles]

2. I would love for this to be true

but I am highly skeptical and very worried about their safety

[Newsjock]

3. All you need to know about this poll

1. "The poll didn't include the cities of Fallujah, Ramadi and Mosul, which have been centers of the insurgency."

2. "IRI is a U.S. government-funded nonprofit organization that promotes democracy worldwide."

I call bullshit.

[Robbien]

5. The IRI is also the organization which took the polls in the Ukraine

which always turned out in favor of the Bush-backed candidate.

Ask any foreign developing nation what they think of the IRI and you will get an earful.

[rockedthevoteinMA]

12. Mother Jones just did an interesting article on the IRI and they're

involvement in Haiti and Venezuela...

"But did the rebellion really spring from nowhere? Maybe not. Several leaders of the demonstrations -- some of whom also had links to the armed rebels -- had been getting organizational help and training from a U.S. government-financed organization. The group, the International Republican Institute (IRI), is supposed to focus on nonpartisan, grassroots democratization efforts overseas. But in Haiti and other countries, such as Venezuela and Cambodia, the institute -- which, though not formally affiliated with the GOP, is run by prominent Republicans and staffed by party insiders -- has increasingly sided with groups seeking the overthrow of elected but flawed leaders who are disliked in Washington.

In 2002 and 2003, IRI used funding from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to organize numerous political training sessions in the Dominican Republic and Miami for some 600 Haitian leaders. Though IRI’s work is supposed to be nonpartisan -- it is official U.S. policy not to interfere in foreign elections -- a former U.S. diplomat says organizers of the workshops selected only opponents of Aristide and attempted to mold them into a political force."

Snip

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2004/11/11_401.html

[Robbien]

13. Thanks for the link to the mother jones story

I've been following NED and IRI activities for a several years now. When 9/11 happened there were those that questioned Why us. Knowing about NED and IRI, I was in the group that said What took them so long.

[pinniped]

4. The 'fix' is in.

Smart money's on Allawi-puppet.

[HuffleClaw]

6. the poll did not include...

could you imagine CNN airing a 'national' poll that included the phrase, 'the poll did not include new england, new york state or california'?

[Robbien]

7. Only 29% know what they are voting for But 75% strongly intend to vote

Now how likely is that?

[arcos]

8. but will their vote count? n/t

[kuozzman]

9. I wonder how they'll feel about machines that give a different outcome

than they expected?

[ailsagirl]

10. I didn't realize there were any left

we've done such a good job of murdering them

[FloridaPat]

11. I wonder how many of them are women. Now that the Iraqi women

are back in the stone ages, the "compassionate conservatives" seem to have forgotten them. Or maybe that was another goal along with stealing the oil. These people seem to hate women's rights as much as liberals.

[Dirk39]

14. The rebirth of democrazy...

Freedom, freedom, freedom...

It's nice to hear something like that. After the majority of Americans is so happy with their working democrazy that they don't care to vote anymore - they simply have no time to vote, they have to support the domestic market and need every minute to spend their never ending dollars. They have become lazy.
But now a happy young flourish democrazy with all the energy and power of people, who really know how to appreciate the free market, the more free market, the most free market, show us again, what a real democrazy is about! Let's pray.

Did I really understand the American Nightmare now?
I'm trying, I desperately try here in Germany,
Dirk

[Newsjock]

15. Watch the morning papers for this story

... and email this info to every paper that falls for this. Coming from Knight Ridder, I expected better, since they usually don't fall for propaganda like this. So be polite, not mean, but let your local paper know that when they run this stuff, they will be called out.