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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Skywatcher who wrote (47050)	10/14/2004 8:47:58 PM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

In your usual enthusiasm to tear down Mr. Bush, I see that you ignored the key sentence in this saga. ; Government officials also say they deplore the Bush administration's call for more democracy here. "It's none of their business," one of them said with scorn. Waft of freedom is hated by the Saudi clergy and militant populace alike. If Afghanistan model is any example of shape of things to come than naturally freedom and associated pluralism is a bane for them/: Saudi free elections will change the face of Nejd, Hijaz and Dhahran. You must be really very naive to use Saudi popular anger as an argument to discredit Bush. Bush has taken these unwilling allies and helped urged them to turn their guns towards the heavy guns of Alqaeda, the breeding grounds are now closed on new lot of Alqaeda diehards, that is one benefit of alliance policy, Bush also is demanding free elections and freedom to avoid further unrest, that is what upsets Saudis. Afghan polls: first results put Karzai in lead KABUL: The first results released in Afghanistan’s presidential election put President Hamid Karzai in the lead after 7,513 votes were counted in the northern province of Kunduz, Afghanistan’s electoral commission said on Thursday. Firm results were not expected for at least a week, and the final tally is not due until the end of the month. Still, the first official results posted late on Thursday gave early encouragement to Karzai. The Afghan Joint Electoral Management Body website showed President Hamid Karzai, considered the favourite to win the war-torn country’s first election, had garnered 54.7 per cent of the total with 4004 votes. Trailing Karzai in second place with 20.1 per cent of the vote was ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam while the man seen as Karzai’s chief rival Yunus Qanooni only won 14.4 per cent of the vote. In Kunduz, which was the first of five regional counting centres to begin counting votes, 7,314 votes were considered valid while 217 ballot papers were declared invalid. The Kunduz results represent only a tiny fraction of the ballots due to be counted across Afghanistan in coming days, and only 3 per cent of the votes due to be counted in the province itself. So far, over 22,OOO polling stations nationwide have sent ballot boxes by donkeys, jeeps and helicopters to be counted and 9,917 stations have had their ballot boxes opened and ballots checked, sorted and prepared for counting. With less than half the polling stations accounted for voter turnout was 3,393,856, according to the UN-backed electoral commission website. In fourth and fifth place respectively were ethnic Hazara military strongman Mohammed Mohaqeq with 2.8 per cent of the vote and the country’s only female presidential candidate Massooda Jalal.

To: Skywatcher who wrote (47050)	10/15/2004 6:20:07 AM
From: IQBAL LATIF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50167

Chris, will you join me to raise a toast of greatest thanks to the present US administration for being able to free Afghanistan from shackles of Talebens. Not only that for the first time in the history of that nation 75% of the population took part in the voting showing enthusiasm for freedom and pluralism. The collateral benefit of freedom and its vast impact on tentacles of terror cannot be understated. Will you also join me in accepting the doing nothing would have left Afghanistan as a sanctuary for lunatic vandals bent to destroy the predacious balance on which global peace rests? Moreover, will you join me in accepting that policy of Clinton and his approach of washing his hands off from a dangerous sanctuary of global terrorists and leaving it to the times to decide the fate of that country was a fatal mistake, would you also with the benefit of hindsight agree that leaving that gaping big hole after USSR withdrawal from 1992 by successive administrations was shortsighted and contributed to hatching of 911 plot. Will you accept the fact that freedom of choice in electing leaderships has a direct bearing on the terrorists’ makeup of any nation, the freer the better? Can we jointly agree and instill in ourselves pregnancy of hope that Saudi Arabia future like Afghanistan and Iraq to a terror free land can be expedited if we promote freedom of expression and help bring accountability within the kingdom as an accepted face of daily life. This is the only way that young man can go about venting their grievances instead of blowing buildings, although no moral equivalence can be drawn between venting their grievances and blowing buildings or designs of their grievances being quenched by innocent blood, but freedom of expression does help alleviate the pressures within the kettle left simmering too tightly close on a fire. We know that 'vents' help avoid big explosions, free elections in closed societies are those vents! It does need pro-active involvement and engagement, it is however positive engagement and eradication of destructive forces of evil that brings forth ray of hope for mankind more visible. We all know that the 'sanctuaries of uncertainty' in this connected world can bring havoc on our very frail cyber economy and life. Our global village needs nice, clean neighbourhoods.Amen