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Tue. Jan 25, 2005

A Landslide for Hope

A few weeks back, I wrote about the latest missive from Osama bin Laden, in which he labeled Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani as a “henchman” engaging in “blatant apostasy,” and declared “everyone who participates in this election will be considered infidels.” Since then, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, proud murderer of hundreds of Iraqis, has released more tapes on behalf of Al Qaeda in Iraq.

One look at who is trying to keep Iraqis from voting, as well as the actions and rhetoric they are using to try and do so, ought to tell any thinking human all they need to know. If it was just rhetoric, then you might say al-Zarqawi is the Alan Keyes of Iraq, attempting to win with odd invective and outrageous statements. But as we see daily, it isn’t just rhetoric. It’s car bombs and assassinations.

If it was just rhetoric, he’d be losing, in a big way.

An overwhelming majority of Iraqis continue to say they intend to vote on Jan. 30 even as insurgents press attacks aimed at rendering the elections a failure, according to a new public opinion survey.

The poll, conducted in late December and early January for the International Republican Institute, found 80 percent of respondents saying they were likely to vote, a rate that has held roughly steady for months.

The 64 percent who said they were “very likely” to vote represented a dip of about 7 percentage points from a November survey, while those “somewhat likely” to vote increased 5 points.

Washington Post: “Most Iraqis Remain Committed to Elections, Poll Finds”

It’s interesting to note, the above article was not linked from the Washington Post’s front page, and in appears that in the print edition, it was shoved back to Page A13. No need to offer encouragement to anyone by allowing such news any priority in placement.

Here’s another survey finding you likely haven’t heard:

A recent poll by the London-based paper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat found that 66% of those asked supported the elections on schedule. Iraqi women, who due to past bloodshed constitute a majority of the Iraqi population, are particularly interested.

According to the latest poll conducted in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra by Women for Women International, “94% of women surveyed want to secure legal rights for women; 84% of women want the right to vote on the final constitution; [and] nearly 80% of women believe that their participation in local and national councils should not be limited… despite increasing violence, particularly against women, 90.6% of Iraqi women reported that they are hopeful about their future”.

Guardian: “The Iraqi people will defy the Ba’athists and Islamofascists”

I found that last bit rather striking. In how many countries in the Middle East will you find that 90% of the women are hopeful about their future? Hell, in how many Western countries would you find that result? Hope often is strongest in the wake of great change, like the toppling of decades of tyranny.

And it is that hope which Zarqawi must crush. However, a man must know his limitations, and Zarqawi seems to have left that precept behind.

The Washington Post article above also says, “In Anbar province, a vast and predominantly Sunni stretch of western Iraq that includes Fallujah and Ramadi, Zarqawi’s group this week distributed fliers warning that anyone seen in public from Jan. 27 on would be regarded as ‘a military target.’”

That’s the freedom Al Qaeda offers to Iraqis … they don’t even want you to go outdoors during the four days preceding the vote. Step into public, and they will shoot you. And this inversion of the American election day tradition of “Get Out The Vote” is complemented by a publicity campaign.

Insurgents in a town in central Iraq made a gruesome billboard threat to behead Iraqis who take part in next weekend’s elections, warning they will use ink thumb prints to be issued at polling stations to target voters.

The graphic poster, showing a headless body with its’ thumb covered in ink, was pasted next to campaign materials in the town. All voters will have a thumb marked with a visible UV ink — which will remain on the skin for 48 hours — to prevent repeat polling.

Telegraph: “Zarqawi pledges war on Iraq elections”

In addition to this “billboard campaign,” Zarqawi has been releasing audio recordings filling with ugly names and wild claims. Last Thursday, he said, “They broke into the safe houses of God … They defiled them and they hung the photos of their Satan, al-Sistani, on the walls and they spitefully wrote: ‘Today, your land; tomorrow it will be your honor.’”

In addition to calling one of the handful of Grand Ayatollahs “Satan,” the “Leader of ‘al-Jihad organization in Bilad al-Rafeydeen (Mesopotamia)’ said that some 800 Israeli and Jordanian soldiers took part in the military campaign launched by the American forces against Falluja city in November.”

Yes, you must somehow work the Jews into the conspiracy for it to be whole. Still, he wasn’t done. On Saturday, there was a new missive. A real spit-flecked doozy.

“We have declared a bitter war against democracy and all those who seek to enact it,” said the speaker in the 35-minute message.

“Democracy is also based on the right to choose your religion,” he said, and that is “against the rule of God.”

The speaker attacked the Iraqi interim government as a tool used by the “Americans to promote this lie that is called democracy … You have to be careful of the enemy’s plots that involve applying democracy in your country and confront these plots, because they only want to do so to … give the rejectionists the rule of Iraq. And after fighting the Baathists … and the Sunnis, they will spread their insidious beliefs, and Baghdad and all the Sunni areas will become Shiite. Even now, the signs of infidelity and polytheism are on the rise.”

“Oh, people of Iraq, where is your honor?” he asked. “Have you accepted oppression of the crusader harlots … and the rejectionist pigs?”

“For all these issues, we declared war against, and whoever helps promote this and all those candidates, as well as the voters, are also part of this, and are considered enemies of God,” the tape said.

CNN: “Purported al-Zarqawi tape: Democracy a lie”

Again, as with Osama bin Laden, we have a man with no formal religious training whatsoever, a man whose expertise is in separating the blood and skin of innocents from their bones, who still feels qualified to pass down religious edicts. Obviously, I’m not a Muslim, but regardless of specific faith, I can think of nothing more blasphemous than the rantings of a murderous beast who claims to know the mind of God … and dictates it as an “order” to be followed at penalty of death.

He not only says you can’t choose your religion, he makes it clear that if you choose the “right” religion, but the “wrong” sect, you’re a “rejectionist pig.” If you think about voting, hell, if you even go outdoors, you’re an infidel.

In his “hair-on-fire” zeal, Zarqawi makes the stark choice clear, even as he tries to eliminate it. Iraqis can choose to go vote, and select from a number of slates of candidates who will offer them a voice and freedom to worship as they see fit. Or they can follow Zarqawi’s will, cower at home and inside for four days leading up to the vote, and by doing so, support the rule of car bombs at mosques and weddings, and assassinations of clerics and public officials. Oh, and plan on becoming a Sunni, too, if you want to remain unthreatened in their new world.

I pray that election day in Iraq will be a success, but I know there will be attacks. There will be people who … literally ... will give their life trying to give life to democracy. And it didn’t have to be this way. I still feel in my heart that we have failed the Iraqi people in many ways. But here we are. And in some ways, this bloody confrontation needs to happen.

Though many will try to paint it as such, it won’t be a bloody confrontation between US forces and the terrorists, and if there are successful attacks, that does not mean failure. It will be a confrontation between the forces of negativism, and the Iraqi people’s hopes for their future, whatever choice they might make in the voting booth.

And though an unknown number may die in the process, it’s going to be a landslide. For hope.