new day in iraq

**fromdust** · 12-16-2005, 10:30 PM

i am surprised that no one has said anything about the birth of a new democracy in iraq. a new iraq, damn that bush!
this is taken from cnn and even with all that good news they have to slip something depressing into the article. can you guess what paragraph it is? anything positive liberals want to say about the turnout, the new democracy, anything? no? oh well.

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Vote counting in Iraq began Thursday night after a surprisingly high number of voters turned out to choose the nation's first full-term parliament since Saddam Hussein's ouster.

Results from the 33,000 polling stations probably won't be available for "two weeks or more," said Farid Ayar, spokesman for the Independent Electoral Commission of Iraq.

Officials estimated about 10 million of the 15 million registered voters participated in the elections for a 275-seat parliament called the Council of Representatives.

Among those who streamed to the polls were Sunni Arabs, who had stayed away in previous elections only to find they barely had a voice in government.

The high turnout was remarkable considering curfews, bulked-up security, border closings, road closures and traffic bans across the country.

The turnout was so heavy in some areas that election officials gave provincial governments discretion to keep polls open an hour past the 5 p.m. closing time.

"It's been a good day for Iraq," said Laith Kubba, a top aide to transitional Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari.

Only scattered violence was reported. An explosion caused two deaths -- an Iraqi soldier and a civilian -- in Baquba in Diyala province.

On election eve in Ramadi, a bomb killed a U.S. Marine assigned to the 2nd Marine Logistics Group, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward). The death brought the number of U.S. troops killed in the Iraq war to 2,152.

The U.S. military said two 127 mm rockets were fired in central Baghdad Thursday morning, one of them landing behind a polling station. Three people were wounded.

At four different Sadr City polling stations in eastern Baghdad, three armed terrorists were blamed for harassing voters, election officials said.

Nonetheless, one volunteer poll worker in Baquba deemed it "a special day."

"It's the beginning of our new life," said Buthana Mehdi, a schoolteacher. (Watch the interview with the poll worker -- 5:31)

In some cases, voters had to take long walks to get to polls. Many were seen happily thrusting their purple ink-stained fingers at photographers -- the colored fingers a symbol of Iraq's free elections.

In Ramadi, local clerics used mosque sound systems, usually reserved for calls to prayer, to urge people to vote.

A celebratory atmosphere took hold in some locations. In the eastern Ramadi neighborhood of Sufiya, candy was handed out as people came to vote.

A strong turnout was reported even in the Sunni Arab-dominated Salaheddin province, which includes Hussein's hometown of Tikrit. (Watch report on high Sunni turnout -- 2:43)

Officials pleased
The presence of Sunni Arab voters pleased U.S. and Iraqi officials, who believe their acceptance of the new post-Hussein government will quell the Sunni-dominated insurgency.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said that successfully integrating the Sunni Arab community into the political process was a factor that would contribute to the start of a pullout of U.S. forces after the elections.

"This is a major step forward in achieving our objective," said President Bush, referring to the U.S. goal of creating a democratic Iraq and an ally.

"This is a crucial part of the war on terror," he added.

Thousands of Iraq expatriates voted in 15 countries -- including the United States -- over the past three days.

More than 19 political coalitions ran in the election, along with 307 political entities -- either independent parties or individual candidates. (Find out how system works)

Expected to fare well are the ruling coalitions during the transitional period -- the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdish bloc.

**fromdust** · 12-18-2005, 07:42 PM

i know a lot of people on this board do not agree with the war in iraq, which is ok with me. i could care less what people think about it. thats the great thing about the u.s. belive what you want. i dont even agree with the majority of whats going on there, but i thought i would share this from the kurds.

A group representing Kurdistan thanks America for liberating that nation from Saddam Hussein's dictatorship of terrorism.

"The Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan just want to say ‘thank you for helping us win our freedom. Thank you for democracy. Thank you America.”

The print and broadcast advertisements are sponsored by the Kurdistan Development Corporation, an organization created by the government of Kurdistan to encourage international investment.

The ad campaign began Monday in the United States with ads in The Wall Street Journal and on Fox News Channel. Ads begin airing Nov. 14 airing in Europe.

The group describes Kurdistan as a place "where peace and prosperity have reigned since liberation from Saddam Hussein.”
Bayan Sami Abdul Rahman, Chairman of the Kurdistan Development Corporation and Kurdistan’s High Representative to the UK, says the commercials are necessary to counter the American media’s largely negative coverage of Iraq.

"We feel the mainstream media,” she tells Newsmax, "is focusing on the negative stories coming out of Iraq and very rarely highlighting the good news.”

"We’re not saying that the media doesn’t tell the truth. They do tell the truth. There is violence. There is an insurgency. But it’s not the whole truth, or the whole picture.”

"The truth is that while there is violence,” she continues, "there are big strides being taken towards democracy in Iraq, particularly in Kurdistan. There are vast sections of Iraq, and again particularly Kurdistan, where the region is safe, stable, and people are getting on with their lives, doing business, trying to build a future.”

Indeed, not a single coalition soldier has died in Kurdistan since March 2003.

Rahman worries, however, about suggestions that the United States should pull out of Iraq.

"If people are saying that America should withdraw their troops now, that would be a catastrophe, not only for the people of Iraq but also for the Middle East and the wider intentional community and the United States,” she says.

The current peace and prosperity is a welcome change from conditions under Saddam Hussein, who targeted the Kurds throughout his rule.

Among other atrocities, Hussein ordered the use of chemical weapons against the Kurdish village of Halabja in 1988, killing an estimated 5,000 Kurds, a majority of which were women and children.

Following the Gulf War in 1991, the United States and the United Kingdom established "no-fly zones” in northern Iraq to prevent continued bombing of Kurdistan by Saddam. Kurds ran a semi-autonomous government under the protection of the "no-fly zones.

Kurdistan President H.E. Masoud Barzani thanked President Bush for his dedication to Iraqi freedom in an Oct. 25 visit to the White House.
"It was a brave decision that you have made,” Barzani told the president, "you have liberated a people from a dictatorial regime that has hurt a lot of people.”

Rahman goes further, calling President Bush a "hero.”

"The people of Kurdistan and the government of Kurdistan,” she gushes, "admire President Bush’s courage in fighting Saddam Hussein despite some of the doubts of America’s international partners.”

Rahman says there is no question that the decision to liberate Iraq was just.

"Saddam Hussein was a tyrant,” she notes, "a dictator who committed genocide against the people of Kurdistan ... To get rid of someone like that, there should be no question.”

In addition to the advertisments, the group maintains a Web site, www.theotheriraq.com, expressing its gratitude to the U.S. and the value of Kurdistan to the world community.