Do you believe the cheering Iraqi voters on the news are for real?

[itzamirakul]

I think these are all photo ops. One news broadcast even showed some Iraqi American men in a traditional dance line supposedly cheering for their opportunity to vote. It might have been believable except that the men didn't look too overjoyed. It seemed more like the toppling of Saddam's statue.. a setup for the camera.

[Maple]

1. All it takes

is some cash handed out. People need money badly, for food and other necessities.

[distantearlywarning]

2. Somebody posted this earlier about Fallujah photo ops....

No reason to assume that they aren't doing this for the elections too. At this point, I don't believe a damn thing I see on MSM. It's all a bunch of manufactured lies.

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

“Then today, the military brings in a dozen Humvees and ground troops to basically seal off a small area near a market,” he continues, “In the middle of them is a CNN camera crew filming troops throwing candy to kids and these guys in orange vests start cleaning the streets around them.”

He laughs while holding up his arms and says, “I’d never seen those guys anywhere in the city before. I don’t know where they came from.”

After a pause to take a drink of soda he adds, “I’d never seen any boots on the ground at all, and all of the sudden there are all these marines standing around like everything was ok. It was the first time I’d seen any soldier not in a Humvee or a Bradley. I was really surprised.”

“All of it was 100% staged. Good PR before the election,” he says. Then in a reference to mainstream America he adds, “Fallujah is fine, now go back to sleep.”

[FreedomAngel82]

31. I don't believe

anything either. I wouldn't be surpirised if they were paid. I remember reading a while back when they still had schools going on our troops were going around and higher officials were going around making the kids come out of their classes to grab candy and do photo-ops. :( Really awful. I don't like it at all. Even this so-called election there is staged because the orginial reason we went to "war" with Iraq was WMD's and that was a fluke.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. No.

[Jacobin]

4. I'm sure some are

I suspect a majority want US troops gone.

[Lizzie Borden]

5. No I don't believe it.

We already know they know how to "fix" elections.

[knowbody0]

6. those who refuse

are shipped to falluja with blue fingers

[seabeyond]

7. blogger from iraq....raed

The number of Iraqis living outside Iraq excedes four million people. Yes, more than 4,000,000. Around three million of them can vote. More than two million of the total number of Iraqis live in the 14 countries that have voting centers.

The total number of registered votes worldwde is 280,303. Which means that less than 10% of the Iraqis outside Iraq registered their names.

If this is the total number outside, I wonder what the numbers are like inside Iraq. I called my brother Khalid today, and he said that Baghdad is like a no man zone. He went walking all around the area without finding a single open shop or restaurant!

If people are not going outside their homes for eating, who will go vote?

These elections are fake and illegal, they are not representative of Iraqi opinions at all.

Posted by: Raed Jarrar / 10:07 PM (43) comments

http://raedinthemiddle.blogspot.com/

[FreedomAngel82]

32. And here people

on the right are saying it's going to be great. LOL. I was watching earlier this week Scarborough's show and they were talking about it and a guy from the NY Post was on laughing when a guy from Bush's side was going on about what a great victory it'll be and Joe was asking the NY Post guy what was so funny. Like duh! :eyes: I betcha Allawi will win. Remember they are letting Iraqi's outside Iraq (like those living here in the States) vote and they'll probably vote Allawi because he has a good relationship with George.

[uppityperson]

8. Weren't the dancing guys in Australia? All are ex-patriots so far.

Of course they are real. However, they are also photo ops. They are NOT real in that this is widespread. And realize that any they have shown are NOT in Iraq. Anyone voting so far is in another country.

[Kashka-Kat]

9. yeah just like the toppling of statue & rescue of Jessica Lynch was "real"

[porkrind]

16. LOL! You beat me to it.

"the toppling of statue & rescue of Jessica Lynch"

Exactly. All lies. Fucking lies. What is weird is that these are irrefutable well known lies, and the media and public don't care. Now they are feeding us another new lie, and most of America is swallowing it whole. Dumbasses.

BTW, Welcome to DU! :)

[moggie12]

10. Back to reality, please

Fact check:
1) Saddam was indeed a brutal dictator
2) It's not a surprise that the Shia, who are the majority in the country and were dominated by Saddam's party, are glad that they're now going to put their own guys into office.
3) Voting for the first time in your life must be a pretty great experience.

1, 2, and 3 above, however, in no way makes the US-led invasion right or good policy.

[MichiganVote]

11. There was voting during Saddam. About as effective as this fiasco

[moggie12]

13. yeah, I should've said "actual voting" but that's not right either

I was just watching CNN "Iraqi election coverage" with my two kids (15 and 13). The 15 year-old said, "That reporter's making no sense at all - how can you have a stealth campaign?" By the time I got through explaining all the little "flaws" in the election, he was looking at me like I was nuts. Apparently, he has somewhat higher standards for what constitutes an election than Bush & Co.

[Clark2008]

12. Yes, but voting is not as important as protecting your life

I'm guessing that there will be a good turnout, but the minute someone dies, it's over - they're all home for the duration.

[itzamirakul]

24. I don't disagree with the points that you make, what I was saying is

that the Iraqis living in America who chose to vote yesterday were all portrayed by the media as "dancing with joy" for the opportunity of voting, when, from the looks on most of their faces, they had been requested to show some form of ethnic celebration...like the traditional line dance. A few even looked self-conscious, like they really didn' have the heart to do what was asked before the cameras.

I heard one woman say that she had some "doubt" about whether it was "right" for her to vote for a government that people in another country would have to live with (or under) and that she felt the Iraqi people living in the home country should make that choice.

[moggie12]

30. Oh, your post didn't say that

It looked like you were talking about all Iraqis, not just the ones in America. However, I think the ones here have something legitimate to cheer for, i.e, they're hoping their former country does well going forward.

Now that one woman you mentioned in your reply, I agree with her 100%. I thought it was dumb from a PR standpoint to let Iraquis living in other countries vote. It seems ripe for propaganda -- one more reason bad guys over there can point to as evidence that the US rigged the vote. Then again, I've thought everything Bushies have done -- from invading in the first place to how they've managed the "transition to freedom" -- has been dumb, dumb, dumb.

[FreedomAngel82]

33. That's like letting

someone who was born in the U.S. and now lives in Canada vote in our elections. I'm sure none on the right would like that. On this debate board I used to go to this one republican would cry how people from other countries should butt-out of our elections. :eyes:

[StopThief]

14. Of course not. . . .

everyone knows that they have no desire to choose the Iraqi leadership? How dare the United States force the Iraqi people to do so. Outrageous!!!

[0007]

15. Check this site out

http://www.optruth.org

[NVMojo]

17. nope, they are being staged by the Bush PR company, the Rendon Grp.

the same ones who staged the statute piece ...

[ebayfool]

18. Sure they are! Pssst ... anybody? ... wanna buy a bridge?

Sorry, had to do it!

[No Exit]

19. Hell no! Remember the staging that was done when

our people tore down the statue of Saddam? Totally staged "crowd" reactions.

Lies. All lies.

[OneTwentyoNine]

22. Yep,beat me to it....Brought in people for that staged Statue toppling..nt

[spanone]

20. This administration has me chin deep in cynicism.

[suegeo]

21. Hell no, they are props

Just like when the USA pulled down the statue of Saddam. That event was manufactured.

This is all propaganda and we live in ficticious times.

[Tinoire]

23. You "nattering nabobs of negativity"- the NED says yes!

Says all of us are "nattering nabobs" lol.

:puke:

Iraqi Elections
By Peter Brookes
CNSNews.com Commentary
January 28, 2005

There are those out there -- and you know who you are -- more interested in seeing the Bush administration fail in Iraq than in seeing democracy succeed. Sorry, oracles of doom: You're about to be disappointed.

A just-released poll by the National Endowment for Democracy's highly respected International Republican Institute (IRI) suggests that Sunday's Iraqi elections will be much more successful than the nattering nabobs of negativity predict.

(snip)

The survey also relates that: "Iraqis remain optimistic about the future of their country as they anticipate their first post-Saddam democratic elections." Some 52 percent said they think the country will be better off in six months. And 60 percent expect conditions to improve in a year. Even more (65 percent) are optimistic about Iraq five years out.

(snip)

Just staging this national election will be a tremendous success in itself. The Iraqis are defiant in the face of the insurgency:

(snip)

Now, this is all promising news, a ray of sunshine bursting through the dark clouds of the insurgency. (snip)

(snip)

This is just a beginning. And despite the self-serving, misguided hopes of some that the U.S. and its partners fail-the Iraqis and the Coalition are likely to pull this darned election off.

(Peter Brookes, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense, is a senior fellow for national security affairs at The Heritage Foundation)

http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewCommentary.asp?Page=%5CCommentary%5Carchive%5C200501%5CCOM20050128b.html

[itzamirakul]

25. Peter Brookes sounds like another

well-paid philospher of fascism employed as a hack for a wannabe dictator-style of American government. They probably found a way to get a huge government grant to pay off people like this with tax dollars. More shill for the Bush regime.

[Tinoire]

29. He does & is. I'm almost afraid to look at the Iraqi blogs

I have Fox News on in the bakcground but had to mute them because it's getting so vile.

Bush... bringing democracy to the world. Oh the irony!

[AntiCoup2K4]

26. Probably the same exact group of "Iraqi National Congress" rejects......

....who cheered when Saddam's statue was toppled - not by the Iraqi people, but by US tanks. And since the INC was Chalabi's group, that even further blurs the line of whether he's really on the outs with PNAC or not. I'd say the odds of either Chalabi or Allawi "winning" this election are about even, and which ever of the two comes out on top will be PNAC's chosen leader.

[genieroze]

27. If you really want to know whats going on try this.

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage

[dkofos]

28. They don't even know what or who they are voting for.

What a fucking joke.
The SCMSM will show us an election and we will be happy and praise george for bringing peace and democracy to Iraq.

Fucking sheep

[IndianaGreen]

34. Like the idiot that was dancing with a Kurdish flag?

Yep, this is nothing but prowar propaganda to reassure the sheep that our intentions in Iraq are noble, like the Germans in Poland.

[Cha]

35. We know how they do photo ops..

Nothing is left to chance..we've already been BURNED plenty by bush and his reckless photo ops.