Wednesday, December 14, 2005
The color purple
In our family, we all have purple index fingers, today and tomorrow (the business and school day tomorrow is virtually after the fact, given the timezone change). I'd put up a photo of our forest of purple digits, but I crushed my digital camera yesterday (DOH!), so I'm running low on imagery. Look here, instead.
It is both a show of solidarity with the Iraqi people, who need all the solidarity they can get, and an excellent opportunity for a civics for children desperately in need of one. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a synergy.
On the subject of the Iraqi elections, take a look at this article by the BBC. It is just so... BBC.
We shall soon see whether anybody will be.
Still, the article is very interesting, for it confirms that split between the rejectionists and al Qaeda that we and others have been writing about for months (but which has been denied by the likes of Juan Cole):
This is the realist case for the democratization strategy in action.
Of course, the BBC doesn't want too many letters to the editor: "But if it happens at all, it is going to take a very long time."
It is both a show of solidarity with the Iraqi people, who need all the solidarity they can get, and an excellent opportunity for a civics for children desperately in need of one. That, ladies and gentlemen, is a synergy.
On the subject of the Iraqi elections, take a look at this article by the BBC. It is just so... BBC.
Days before Iraq's general election, workers at the Iraqi Islamic Party stream out of their headquarters with armfuls of banners and posters. They have even persuaded footballing hero Ahmed Radhi to endorse them.
Inside the party offices there's a "war room", where party workers sit at a bank of computers exchanging the latest intelligence.
It could almost be a normal election. Except, of course, this is Iraq. So there is always the danger you might get killed.
We shall soon see whether anybody will be.
Still, the article is very interesting, for it confirms that split between the rejectionists and al Qaeda that we and others have been writing about for months (but which has been denied by the likes of Juan Cole):
In fact, even the insurgents are split over whether or not to take part.
In a statement posted on an Islamist website on Monday, the group led by Abu Musab Zarqawi and four other militant groups said the "so-called political process" was forbidden by God's laws and against the Koran. But this time they did not threaten to disrupt the elections.
Meanwhile, some other insurgent leaders in the trouble spots of Falluja and Ramadi have urged their followers to vote, and even pledged to protect polling stations.
Abu Abdullah, an insurgent from Ramadi, warned al-Qaeda not to target polling stations.
"We will defeat them if they dare to attack the polling centres," he said. "Frankly speaking, if they resort to attacking us or polling centres, we will react."
...
It is just possible that this could be the beginning of the process of driving a wedge between hardline insurgents, who will never compromise, and Sunni Muslims who might be brought into the political process.
This is the realist case for the democratization strategy in action.
Of course, the BBC doesn't want too many letters to the editor: "But if it happens at all, it is going to take a very long time."
0 Comments:
