Puppet Allawi Gets Word From Puppeteer Chimpo Bush: HOLD THE FUCKIN' ELECTION AS PLANNED OR I'LL DUMP YOUR ASS

Bush rules out any delay in bogus Iraqi election

By Peter Symonds
6 December 2004

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Before the Iraqi elections planned for January 30 get underway, it is clear that the exercise has nothing to do with bringing democracy to the Iraqi people.

Even the date of the poll is being determined in Washington. Last Thursday, speaking to reporters at the White House, US President Bush bluntly dismissed calls from inside Iraq for the election to be delayed. “It’s time for the Iraqi citizens to go to the polls,” he bluntly declared.

“It’s one of those moments in history where a lot of people will be amazed that a society has been transformed so quickly from one of tyranny and torture and mass graves to one in which people are actually allowed to express themselves at the ballot,” he added.

Of course, none of the assembled media pointed to the absurdity of Bush’s comments. The “tyranny, torture and mass graves” that have been part and parcel of the US occupation of Iraq are precisely what are fuelling ongoing armed resistance to the American military presence. The precise election date was set in the wake of the latest US atrocity—the levelling of the city of Fallujah and the indiscriminate slaughter of thousands of resistance fighters and civilians.

As far as the White House is concerned, the essential preparation for the election is the dispatch of a further 12,000 US troops to Iraq to bolster American military operations to suppress armed opposition and to intimidate an overwhelmingly hostile population. The Iraqi people will only be able to “express themselves” at a ballot held under US military occupation and for parties and candidates vetted and monitored by US officials.

In three of the country’s 18 provinces, fighting has been so intense that preparations for the January 30 poll have not begun. In the northern city of Mosul, voter registration lists and other election material were destroyed in mid-November when insurgents mounted a series of concerted attacks and took over police stations and key government buildings.

US ambassador John Negroponte tried to reassure the media last week that security conditions would be “sufficient and adequate” for the election to take place. Over the past three days, however, more than 80 people have died in a wave of attacks on US forces and Iraqi government police and troops. In the deadliest incident on Saturday, a car packed with explosives rammed a mini-bus carrying Kurdish militia who were heading to Mosul to reinforce government forces. At least 18 were killed.

In an interview published in a Dutch newspaper on Saturday, UN special envoy to Iraq Lakhdar Brahimi bluntly warned: “It is a mess in Iraq.” Asked if it would be possible to hold elections, he declared: “If the circumstances stay as they are, I don’t think so.” He called on the “international community” and the US “to help clean up this mess. If you let it deteriorate, the situation will become even more dangerous.”

Brahimi’s comments reflect concerns, particularly in European ruling circles, that the situation in Iraq is rapidly spiralling out of control. Far from stabilising the country, an election held under these circumstances will be widely viewed as illegitimate both inside and outside Iraq.

Opposition to the election is most evident among the country’s Sunni minority, which constitutes about 20 percent of the population. Over the weekend, a meeting of mainly Sunni leaders, representing 40 parties, gathered under the slogan “Flawed Elections, Disputed Results” to call for the election to be delayed. Tawfik al Yassri, leader of Iraqi National Coalition party, told the media: “I warn the two sides that the situation is very serious.” If the poll is seen as illegitimate, he said, “It will be the first seed of civil war.”

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