All of us, the Right, as well as the Left, have a moral duty to hold the President accountable.
From a Yahoo! Reuters article, With delight and fervor, Iraqis cast ballots :
With delight and fervor, Iraqis cast ballots[!] [/] Thu Dec 15, 2005 6:30 AM ET [/] By Luke Baker
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - There may not be the same sense of history this time round, but the joy and determination of Iraqi voters emerging from dictatorship is still evident.
Young and old, able-bodied and infirm, they streamed to polls for the third time in 11 months on Thursday, this time to elect a four-year parliament.
While not as novel as the first post-Saddam Hussein election in January, participation was more widespread. Sunni Arabs, who boycotted the earlier poll for an interim assembly, flocked to vote this time, determined not to miss out on power again.
"I'm delighted to be voting for the first time," said 21-year-old driver Jamal Mahmoud in Ramadi, a Sunni Arab city west of Baghdad that has been at the front line of the anti-American insurgency for the past two years.
[...] "Ballot boxes are a victory of democracy over dictatorship," said Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari capturing something of the moment as he cast his vote in the protected Green Zone. [/] "The real triumph is that people are casting ballots, whoever they choose, and that they've chosen voting over bombs."
[...] Hussein Garmiyani, a Kurd dressed in traditional clothing, was an early voter in the Shorja district. He jabbed his finger with a pin and cast his ballot in blood. [/] "I was a victim of the Anfal campaign," he said, referring to Saddam's purge of the Kurds in the 1980s. "These past years were years of blood and I signed for freedom with my blood."
This is, of course, self-mutilation. And it is also All Bush's Fault!
[…] "We have huge numbers of voters waiting at stations, but we don't have enough ballot papers," said Najib Mahmood, an official with the Electoral Commission in Falluja. [/] Earlier, some Falluja residents had complained that voting stations were too far away from their homes, so the Electoral Commission laid on cars for those unable to walk. [/] "The problem is, we don't have enough cars to cope with number of voters," said Mahmood, describing a complete turnaround in sentiment from January, when just two percent of those registered in Anbar province cast ballots.
Not enough ballots! Not enough cars! It is very evident that It Is All Bush's Fault!
[…] "This is a day of freedom for us," said Selima Khalif, an elderly woman. "We are so happy. The most important thing we need is security. We want our children to get a better life."
Families walked together to vote with her, and others came on bicycles, keen to make their ballots count. [My ellipses and emphasis]
But, of course, all this euphoria will fade eventually and it will be plain to all that It Is All Bush's Fault!
