Question?

[Scarletwine]

This is in particular aimed at those that may have the answers or thoughts.

If we established an interim gov't and they are supposed to be sovereign don't they have the right to delay elections. They have repeatedly asked for a delay. How can we dictate to them what they must do. Surely it will not be considered a legitimate election. Or is its just a bunch of bullshit to cover for Bush.

2nd question. How come Negropante(sp) has not been in the news at all? It makes him seem the Puppet Master in the background.

3rd - Is it an apparent reason for the pullout predictated by Novak?

4th - Intelligence today predicted a greater number of insurgents than US soldiers. 200,000 to 140,000 or so.

 

[pax]

I have one more question to add to Scarletwine's...

What if, in these "free" elections, the Iraqi people vote for (or appear to vote for) one of the Shia hardliners? Then what?

 

[STING2]

Lets remember that virtually the only group of people asking for a delay in this election at this point are the Sunni's. 80% of the country wants to go ahead with elections. Certainly, if support for having the elections was not there in most of Iraq, the elections would be delayed. But the Sunni's who would like to see a delay are a small fraction of the country.

If there were really 200,000 insurgents, they must be taking a lot of vacations because the number of attacks is small compared to that figure. I'd say the number is more like 20,000.

I'm sure there will be several Shia Hardliners elected to the national assembly, as well as many Shia Moderates.

 

[financeguy]

Have to agree with Sting2 on this surprisingly. Arguments for delaying the elections do not seem strong enough for me at this point.

 

[pax]

So you think there's a good chance any hardliners will be countered by enough moderates to keep things in line, at least as much as possible?

I'm purely curious; I don't really know a lot about this.

 

[financeguy]

My take on it is, if they delay the elections they just lose all credibility and the insurgents will think of it as a victory. Imperfect democracy is better than none at all.

 

[Scarletwine]

But the Sunni's are not the only ones asking for a delay Allawi is also and isn't he supposed to in charge.

 

[A_Wanderer]

You are wrong. Allawi is not asking for a delay he intends on holding the elections on time and with 78% of Iraqi's expressing a desire to get out and vote on the day even with the risk of violence this will in all probability occur, you have mistaken the Iraqi Prime Minister Iyaad Allawi with the Iraqi President Ghazi Yawar (a figurehead position now with an appointee to appease the Sunnis). All of the polls put out by various groups (US, Iraqi Newspapers, BBC etc.) show that most people want to have an elected government and do not want to have their religious leadership become directly involved in politics, it will be an Iraqi democracy and over the decades its true nature shall be revealed.