This is amazing...

Faiza on US-style democracy

Faiza, of "A Family in Baghdad" is participating in an interesting exchange on the "Open democracy" site. In addition, her blog now carries the English-language version of a long post she wrote in Arabic on october 3. Here are some interesting excerpts: We went, my friends and I, to attend a lecture about Democracy, and the Elections. The lecturer was an Iraqi lady, who said she attended some work-shop discussions about the subject, and she'll explain it to us, so we could explain it to others. She spoke about the meaning of the two words, and their relation with each other. Then she spoke about the methods of elections, and their traits, then the civil society and its role in elections, the relation of the civil society with the parties, and the danger in the party's dominance over the civil organizations. [...] She said every candidate has a message, which he keeps repeating to people's attention until they memorize it…I smiled........... imagining the poor American citizen these days…they all fight, and debate, giving him the headaches, as they try, each separately, to say he is completely right, and the other is completely wrong…and whoever votes for the opponent is a complete fool…Ha, ha, ha… A game that gives people the headaches…as if you are in a Bazaar…each is calling for his merchandise, wanting to sell it more than the others. But people's lives and destinies are decided here…inside this chaos, shouting, and headache-promoting noise… I don't know…as if I see the propaganda, the competition, and the debates, are subjected to a lot of acting, and show-offs, more than honesty, calmness, and rationality.The media plays its role here…where truth gets mingled with lies, justice with false…and facts get lost. A very dangerous game….this is Democracy. And the bad people could maneuver it, because they play like jugglers, in a circus. And the audiences are poor….who could easily be tricked.

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Hatred, fear reign after 'liberation'
Violence, anarchy cutting too close to home for some

Behnam Farho pinpoints the moment when the fear got to be too much, when he decided his country was lost, and it was time for him to gather up his family and leave Iraq -- for good.

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  thanks to Antiwar.com

Platoon defies orders in Iraq
Miss. soldier calls home, cites safety concerns

A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday. The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.

[more]

  thanks to daily KOS

Is Bush Shortchanging our Troops?
by Juan Cole

That is, there are three separate elements to the order that the reservists refused to obey. The first was that they were being sent to deliver contaminated fuel that shouldn't have in fact been delivered up to the hot war front in Anbar province. The second is that they were being sent to do it in old barely operational vehicles that not only were not armored properly against roadside bombs, but might break down, stranding the soldiers and exposing them to a guerrilla attack. The third was that they were being denied the customary escort by humvees and helicopter gunships, key to scaring off potential small-band guerrilla attacks. In other words, they were ordered to do something illegal in a way that might well have gotten them killed for no good reason.

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US in Iraq: crumbling?
by Helena Cobban

So many indicators of a crumbling of the US-Allawist position in Iraq!

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Territorial Army infiltrated by Al-Qaeda

THE Territorial Army has been infiltrated by Al-Qaeda suspects, giving the Islamic terrorist group potential access to military bases, explosives and fuel dumps.

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