California Conservative

An estimated 15.5 million Iraqis went to the polls today to approve or reject a draft constitution proposed by a parliament dominated by Shi’ite Muslims and ethnic Kurds. Sunni Arabs, who shunned the poll in January that elected the assembly, were out in force this time round, making their voices heard.

The ballot will have one question on it: “Do you approve of the Draft Constitution of Iraq?” A voter will have to make a single mark on the referendum ballot, indicating “YES” or “NO.”

The first Democratic election in Iraq was an overwhelming success. On Jan. 30, 2005. Iraqis elected a Transitional National Assembly, which selected a Presidency Council consisting of a President and two Vice Presidents. In turn, the council will choose the Prime Minister and approve the cabinet.

This second election to approve or reject the Iraqi Constitution was in marked contrast to the elections in January. Today, a greatly weakened terrorist network succeeded in pulling off only 13 attacks aimed at voters and polling stations. The Jan. 30 election sustained 347 attacks (resulting in only 40 people killed). Today, 20,000 Fallujah residents voted. On Jan. 30, no one from Fallujah voted.

On Friday, a bomb attack on the main power line into Baghdad knocked out power to about 70% of the capital, an official from Iraq’s electricity ministry said. Yet the elections went to successfully.

For opponents to the war, this is a sad day indeed, and for their “this war was a mistake” rhetoric. A black eye for them, a shot in the arm for Iraq. What a contrast when in America, the Million More March (10th Anniversary of the Million Man March) takes place in Washington, DC, led by racist leader Louis Farrakhan, supposedly to address and encourage slavery reparation and black unity; contrasted by voters braving the streets of Iraq to vote for a Constitution. The Million More March with sagging support (*attendance figures to be posted later) features complaining, whining anti-war rhetoric and entertainment, with speakers accusing Pres. Bush of being a “liar,” “murderer” and “terrorist.” Meanwhile, people who’ve truly experienced oppression (and still would be if anti-war folks had their way) courageously cast their votes thoroughly proving anti-war protesters wrong. What an embarrassing contrast — for the anti-war movement.

CNN anchor Tony Harris, speaking to Zainab Salbi, president and CEO of Women for Women International, asked today: “What kind of a day is this in your estimation, moving. . . forward, obviously, but how significant?”, just catching himself before outing himself. Mr. Harris thinks he still wears a cover of objectivity with the statement, “This is a step backwards for Iraq! Admit it!” CNN is pathetic.

There had been some concern by an Iraqi friend regarding the draft of the Constitution. In the past 6 weeks, the Vatican and the U.S. have worked with Iraqi foreign ministers and others to assure fairness to all under the new Constitution. On the eve of this election, an e-mail from Fr. Bashar in Iraq read (he speaks English beautifully but writing it is more of a challenge):

Dear in Christ the Lord,

Greetings and best wishes to all of you.

the changes of the yesterday about the Iraqi constituion were a singe of hope for all. this was recieved by most as a good well from the involved personales in the whole prosess.

this will give the courge to say YES and to work for the needed changes in the coming future. we were afried that we would be unable to make any changes only after 8 years. now we can think of a change within 6-8 months after the coming elction.

thanks for your efforts, and may God bless all of you.

Yours in Christ,

Fr. Bashar

We stand with you, Iraq. VIVA IRAQ!!!

RELATED:
Iraq: A Historic Vote

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 16th, 2005 at 8:36 am and is filed under Author: Amy Proctor, Iraq, Liberals, Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.