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January 07, 2005
"Elections" by "Secret" "Ballot," You Said? Ha, ha, ha.
Is anyone reading these major newspapers? Are they just used to fill the recycling bin so that one looks environmentally conscious to the neighbors?
Even amidst all the Pentagon propaganda re-released as news, all the false assumptions, distortions and outright lies, it's hard to not understand what's actually going on in Iraq if one is paying a bit of attention.
This one is from the L.A. Times:
At five heavily guarded entry points to the city [Fallujah], military interrogators are selectively asking returning residents whether they have heard of the upcoming election and, if so, which, if any, candidates they support.
First a foreign occupying army levels your city. Then they tell you that you can't be in your own hometown without I.D cards issued by them and that there will be fingerprinting and retina scans. Then they claim it's so that there can be "elections" free of coercion. Then their military interrogators question you on your vote as you try to return to what's left of your house.
How can something like that be reported just like that, in passing, without much comment? Military interrogators questioning refugees about which candidate they plan to support. If it happened anywhere else in the world, everyone would recognize it for what it was.
Meanwhile government officials continue to declare we're trying to bring democracy to Iraq -- and discussing whether that goal is too noble and lofty for the real world passes as critical punditry.
Posted by zeynep at January 7, 2005 05:20 PM
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