People fleeing Baghdad?

[AnnInLa]

Courtesy of InformationClearinghouse.info (can't vouch for accuracy)

http://dahrjamailiraq.iraq.com/weblog/archives/dispatches/000186.php

((I assume Dahr Jamail is blogging from Iraq, and this seems to be from yesterday.))


"Let me describe the scene on the ground here in “liberated” Iraq.

With the “elections” just three days away, people are terrified. Families are fleeing Baghdad much as they did prior to the invasion of the country. Seeking refuge from what everyone fears to be a massive onslaught of violence in the capital city, huge lines of cars are stacked up at checkpoints on the outer edges of the city.

Policemen and Iraqi soldiers are trying to convince people to stay in the city and vote.

Nobody is listening to them.

Whereas Baghdad is filled with Fallujah refugees, now villages and smaller cities on the outskirts of Baghdad are filling up with election refugees.

Yet these places aren’t safe either. In Baquba attacks on polling stations are a near daily occurrence. Mortar attacks are common on polling stations even as far south as Basra. A truck bomb struck a Kurdish political party headquarters in a small town near Mosul, killing 15 people, wounding twice that many. A string of car bombs detonated at polling stations in Kirkuk, which was already under an 8pm-5am curfew, killing 10 Iraqis.

Here in Baghdad, although the High Commission for Elections in Iraq has yet to announce their locations, schools which are being converted into polling stations are already being attacked.

Iraqis who live near these schools are terrorized at the prospect.

“They can block the whole city and people cannot move,” says a man speaking to me on condition of anonymity, “The city is dead, the people are dead. For what? For these forced elections!”

He is angry and frustrated because his street is now blocked as he lives near a small yellow middle school that is going to be used as a polling station.

Nearby some US soldiers are occupying a police station, as usual. One of them saw me taking photos and tried to confiscate my camera.

[LynnTheDem]

1. Yep.

Dahr is very accurate and reliable and yes he's in Iraq.

[distantearlywarning]

2. Link is down? n/t

[AnnInLa]

7. sorry about the link....try this

go to http://informationclearinghouse.info/

and scroll way down until you see, "Dahr Jamail: Here Comes the Freedom"

[fertilizeonarbusto]

3. The mind boggles

at the total extent of the fuck-up these turds have wrought. Just when you think it can't get any worse...
:grr: :mad:

[Bozita]

5. Bullseye! ... It's definitely FUBAR

[Mojambo]

4. I feel so bad for these people

They are trapped in a city of death, literally.

[theorist]

6. It's no wonder they won't let the UN in to monitor.

(Even if the UN were willing to go in, that is.)

What's the cutoff for a legitimate vote? 50%? 30%? I have a feeling that less the 25% of eligible voters will show up (this does not include those residing in the Sunni triangle, I believe). Anybody know for sure?

[AnnInLa]

12. but, but," just the fact that there is an election

being held"....blah, blah....boy, did he lower the expectations, or what?

[Ezlivin]

8. Perhaps they are just "turning the corner"

"They are making progress" because voting is "hard work" and "Democracy is on the march."

I'm sure we are just minutes away from good news delivered from the Bush administration.

[burythehatchet]

9. "I've firmly planted the flag of freedom"

[Ravenseye]

10. A number of my family members have fled.

It sounds like there are more Iraqi's hiding in Jordan now than are in Baghdad.

Some of my family were delayed leaving town because of gas shortages. They got delayed a number of days because they couldn't aquire enough fuel to get them to Jordan.

Apparently though, and this was last week, not now...god who knows now....but last week once they got the gas and left Baghdad the trip was uneventful all the way to Amman.

[theorist]

13. So is there any truth to the claim of "excitement in the streets in Iraq"?

I've heard this from such "liberal" news sources as NPR. Is everyone just terrified? I've heard that conspiracy theories have considerable weight in Iraq; is everyone convinced that the U.S. has already counted the votes?

[Divernan]

14. I'm glad to hear they are safely out of there.

Please tell them that there are people in the US, like me, who live each day with deep sadness for what the Iraqi people are enduring.

[ContraBass Black]

11. Liberty!

:cry:

[BrightKnight]

15. Use absentee or early voting procedures to avoid terrorist threat

They should use absentee or early voting procedures to avoid the terrorist threat. Having millions of people queuing at announced polling places is stupid. There must be enough intelligence somewhere in the DoD to understand this.

[DoYouEverWonder]

18. I don't think Iraq

has much of a postal system any more and early voting would be just as dangerous.

[ContraBass Black]

19. They can't absentee or vote early

Because the candidates are secret until election day.

[Old and In the Way]

16. Here's what's not happening.

* Iraqi's are not getting a representitive government.
* Our soldiers are not getting out of this hellhole.
* Bush is not getting their oil.
* Those elected won't be getting a long life.
* We won't be getting the truth on Iraq as long as this administration stays in office.

[Karenina]

17. Yup.

:hug: