Many Iraqis Losing Hope That Politics Will Yield Real Change -NYT

[Rose Siding]

Haithm Ali, a wiry blacksmith, was welding an iron gate in his shop in Sadr City, the vast Shiite slum in northeastern Baghdad, when he was asked for his thoughts about the country's new national assembly. Mr. Ali's face broke into a bitter smile.

"I don't expect any government to be formed," he said, his welding glasses pushed up over his forehead. "And they won't find any solutions to the situation we find ourselves in."

Nothing like a scientific poll is possible yet in Iraq. But as the national assembly's first brief meeting came and went, broadcast into thousands of Iraqi homes on television, a sampling of street opinion in two Iraqi cities found a widespread dismay and even anger that the elections have not yet translated into a new government.

The interviews - which included members of Iraq's major religious and ethnic groups - indicated in particular a striking sense of disillusionment among Shiites, who make up 60 percent of Iraq's population but were brutally suppressed under the rule of Saddam Hussein.

.......More.........

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/17/international/middleeast/17voices.html?

[Bob3]

1. Ah more signs of progress.

Pretty soon they will have the Iraqi version of Rush Limbaugh.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. Gawd, do I know how they feel.

[sasquatch]

3. You see the Iraqi's know that Bush's elections were a sham

Like the BCF is going to give up the power it needs to rape Iraq of it's natrual resources because of some little crappy election.

[ConcernedCanuk]

4. "Whatever America wants, that is what will happen in the end."

.
.
.

THAT guy at least has grasped the sad reality . . .

From the posted article:

"Some who did watch the 90-minute session seemed dismayed.

"It was like watching a play; it was as if someone had assigned them to say it," said Jabbar Sattar, who sells car parts and accessories in Karada. "You didn't get the feeling they really want to achieve their goals."

For some other Iraqis, a familiar enemy still lurks behind all these persisting divisions: America.

"No one thinks about what the Iraq people need," said Walid Mohammad, 63, the imam of Al Sadiq mosque in Baghdad. "They all work for the occupier. Whatever America wants, that is what will happen in the end."
____________________________________________________

Someone convince me this guy is wrong?

[opiate69]

5. But.. but.. but...I'm confused now...

In today's USA Today, a poll by the "non-partisan group" called the "International Republican Institute" said that the majority of Irawis are upbeat about the future of Iraq?? I don't suppose the author of the USA Today article could be pushing administration propaganda, do you? Nah.. that would never happen with this upstanding group of folks we have in charge, right?

/sarcasm.


On edit.. I just sent the following to USA Today.

So, according to Barbara Slavin, the group called "The International Republican Institute" is non-partisan? And it seems these folks were able to conduct a poll in Iraq, which, surprise surprise, claims that a majority of Iraqis are feeling quite positive about their county's future. Of course, this flies in the face of an article printed in the New York Times on the very same day, which states that not only are a majority of Iraqis losing hope for their country, but further that any sort of scientific poll is actually impossible in Iraq. I only have one question for Ms. Slavin. Is the administration paying you at least as much as they paid Armstrong Williams for pushing their propaganda?

[heyphillip]

6. Iraq policy

Watch and see the Conservatives blame the NYT and the left for this story.

[MsMagnificent]

7. Don't forget Clinton!

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. Many Americans are feeling that way, too.