Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (23879)	9/18/2004 3:18:27 AM
From: geode00	Respond to of 173976

Americans say they don't like negativity..total bs..lies and negativity sell BUSH. Now we're back to asking other countries for troops. Whazza? Aren't the 12 from Moldova enough? seattletimes.nwsource.com Violence could stall Iraqi elections By Baltimore Sun and Chicago Tribune WASHINGTON — Chances that Iraq will be able to hold credible national elections in January are being threatened by insurgent violence, prompting U.S. diplomats to launch an urgent bid this week to get other nations to commit soldiers needed to protect U.N. election workers being kept out of Iraq because of the rising violence, U.S. officials acknowledged yesterday. The elections are supposed to be an important interim step in Iraq's transformation from dictatorship to full democracy. They would pick a transitional national assembly, which would write a new Iraqi constitution that would serve as the basis for elections for a permanent government by the end of next year. Analysts said these plans are looking increasingly unrealistic amid a rising death toll from insurgents, such as Tuesday's car bombing in Baghdad and a shooting attack on Iraqi police that together claimed at least 59 lives. "Most of the experts I deal with agree that it would be better for them [the elections] to be postponed," said Abdulwahab Alkebsi, Middle East program officer at the National Endowment for Democracy. The diplomacy, which has U.S. officials traveling worldwide to make their pitch face to face with foreign counterparts, follows months of failed efforts to get even a single nation to participate in the creation of a U.N. protection force authorized by the Security Council. The U.N., which was supposed to assume a leading role, has been unable to field more than a skeleton staff in Baghdad out of fears for the staffers' safety. The so-called Sunni Triangle remained so violent that a U.S. commander, Lt. Gen. Thomas F. Metz, and Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, have suggested that certain towns and cities, such as Fallujah, be bypassed in the elections. President Bush, campaigning in Minnesota, said, "There's a lot of violence in Iraq, I understand that." But he also said, "We'll help them have elections. We'll get them on the path to stability and democracy as quickly as possible, and then our troops will return home with the honor they have earned." Describing the task of setting up elections as "daunting," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a recent report that "the security environment continues to pose a very profound challenge for the successful achievement of these goals." The U.S. diplomatic push to get more nations to contribute forces to Iraq for the limited mission of protecting U.N. workers was disclosed Wednesday during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing. Ron Schlicher, a deputy assistant secretary of state, told senators the effort involved several countries, although he and other officials declined to name them. The problems are deeper than just setting up the mechanics and securing polling places. U.N. officials acknowledge that the August national conference, supposed to be a steppingstone to the elections, was not as representative of Iraq's population as it should have been. And for logistical reasons, the United Nations and the electoral commission have decided that instead of electing representatives from local districts, the members of the assembly would be picked on a proportional basis, with political parties choosing the individuals who will fill the seats. This strengthens the hand of party leaders at the expense of developing leaders responsible to local constituencies, according to Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute, who was an adviser to U.S. occupation authorities. Combined with the possibility that parts of the Sunni Triangle won't be able to vote, this system of proportional representation could mean that the minority Sunnis, who already fear that they will be stripped of power in a democratic Iraq, would end up being under-represented in the new assembly. ========= This is what happens when a dilettante drunk deserter commits an illegal war.