A good one

[ProSense]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2492495&mesg_id=2492495

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1. More reality

THE FIGHT FOR IRAQ
Iraqi Violence, U.S. Policy Strain
White House Ties With Shiites

By YOCHI J. DREAZEN
March 4, 2006; Page A4

Snip...

By the 2004 election, however, anger over the wars on terrorism and in Iraq led to overwhelming Arab-American support here for Democratic challenger John Kerry, according to Amaney Jamal, an expert on American Muslims at Princeton University. "There was so much anger at Bush that Kerry received the support almost automatically," she said.

It is a far cry from the run-up to the March 2003 invasion, when Iraqi-Americans were largely supportive of the Bush administration's efforts to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Leaders here say there are many reasons for the community's mounting criticism of the administration. Initially, they were disgusted by the abuses at the American-run prison in Abu Ghraib, and they believed that the war on terror unfairly targeted Muslim men. But now, many Arab-Americans say their main reasons are the anger and frustration they feel about the U.S.'s inability to bring matters in Iraq under control.

"I've heard many say they regret their support for their war," says Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations. "Saddam Hussein was a murderous tyrant, but the shock-and-awe campaign of the American military has begotten the worst violence and extremism that Iraq has ever seen."

Juan Cole, an expert on Iraq at the University of Michigan, says the relationship between Muslims in Michigan and the Bush administration was "always a marriage of convenience" between exiles desperate to see Mr. Hussein ousted and a White House eager to solidify domestic support by casting the war as a chance to liberate an oppressed nation. "All along, there was a certain lack of sincerity in their embrace of the Bush administration," he says.

more...

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB114143592440889354.html?mod=todays_free_feature

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2. Interesting. These American Shiites don't want concessions to the

Sunni's.If their feelings are consistant with the Shiites living in Iraq now, I can see nothing good coming anytime soon.Concessions were promised to the Sunni's in order to get them to go along with the latest constitutional vote. If the Sunni's don't get a larger say in this new government, commonsense would lead one to believe that they will get angrier and the fighting will escalate. It is apparent to me that Bush rushed that first series of voting for political reasons, ignoring the stubborn Sunni's who refused to go along with a new form of government at that time. This situation should have been dealt with then and the Sunni's acknowledged and listened to-at least. Instead, Bush ignored them and had the vote without their cooperation allowing the Shiites the most power and say in the Constitution.

This is a real mess!

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3. This is an awesome resource.

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~kvh/kerryoniraqwar/news.html

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4. From the link

The Washington Times invents Kerry quotes out of whole cloth:
This is news from September 24th, but the "quotes" are still going around in the right-wing blogosphere, so they're worth commenting on. These statements were supposedly made on CNN's Crossfire in 1997, but the transcript of Kerry's 1997 Crossfire appearance has no such statements in it: "We know we can't count on the French. We know we can't count on the Russians. We know that Iraq is a danger to the United States, and we reserve the right to take pre-emptive action whenever we feel it's in our national interest." Kerry didn't say any of that. The Washington Times made it up.

Media Matters put out a press release calling them on this:
Washington Times's McCaslin Smeared Kerry with Misquote of 1997 Statement on Iraq

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5. Without media bias

Bush would have gotten 31-33% of the vote--his base.

Poll: Sending troops to Iraq a mistake
Presidential contest a tie among likely voters
Friday, June 25, 2004 Posted: 8:58 AM EDT (1258 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- For the first time since the start of the war in Iraq, a majority of Americans surveyed in a CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll say the United States made a mistake in sending troops to that country.

Snip...

Forty-seven percent said Bush would do a better job on Iraq, compared with 46 percent who picked Kerry.

Snip...

When poll respondents were asked to consider independent Ralph Nader, the breakdown was: 48 percent for Bush, 47 percent for Kerry and 3 percent for Nader.

The poll found some advantages for Kerry. His favorable rating is higher than Bush's, 58 percent to 53 percent, and it has grown over the past few months as Bush's has fallen.

Kerry also gets higher ratings on who would better handle the economy -- 53 percent of respondents picked the Democrat, while 40 percent selected Bush.

And the economy was identified by more voters, 41 percent, as the most important role for the president -- ahead of both managing the government or acting as commander in chief.


http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/06/24/poll.iraq/

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6. Thanks for all the information. It will take me some time to go through it

all. I'll get back after I have read it all.

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7. Also check out the video link. Great stuff! n/t