Unusually high turn out rates may further alienate the already suspicious Sunni minority. American reaction is crucial. The administration should not sweep allegations of corruption under the carpet; domestic political considerations should not supersede election legitimacy and Iraqi consensus.
"BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 17 - Iraqi election officials said today that they were investigating what they described as "unusually high" vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many 99 percent of the voters were reported to have cast ballots in favor of Iraq's new constitution, raising the possibility that the results of Saturday's referendum could be called into question."
Our once Puritan nation is still obsessed with incarceration without rehabilitation, revenge and retribution. Today, we find ourselves at the extreme spectrum of global human captivity practices.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have joined forces. In a new report, The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States the two groups found "2,225 child offenders serving life without parole (LWOP) sentences in US prisons fo crimes committed before they were age 18." By contrast, only 12 such cases exist anywhere else in the world, outside of the United States.
Listen to my interview with "The Sentencing Project" here
Sunday's elections were a great success. An estimated 60% of Iraq's 14 million eligible voters cast their ballots and all went as expected. While Sunni turnout was low, the Shiites voted in great numbers. In the insurgent-Sunni stronghold of Ramadi for example, only 1,700 of the eligible 400,000 went to the ballot box, but in the Shiite town of Najaf, 85% of eligible Iraqis voted. The Iraqi Election board reported that even as 80% of all polling places documented irregularities, the election was fraud-free. To the relief of many, Election Day was also relatively bloodless. Out of 175 attempted attacks, only 44 Iraqis and 11 U.S. soldiers lost their lives.
Speaking to reporters for the first time since his second inauguration, President Bush distanced himself from speculations that his second term foreign policy will "confront all manner of autocrats around the planet" and acknowledged, like his handlers had on Friday, that the inaugural "reflected the policies of the last four years," not a major policy shift. But then, in an attempt to clarify his position, Bush contradicted himself, telling reporters that while "ending tyranny in our world" was a reflection of his first term policy (oh really?), it also set "a bold new goal for the future."
So are we then to conclude that "ending tyranny in our world" by "persistently" challenging "every ruler and every nation" is an empty goal with no policy behind it? The president acknowledged that in order to attain this goal, a "policy shift" would be required. Thus currently, the United States is not in the business of "ending tyranny"-- and won't be in the next four years.
According to Human Rights Watch, "Iraqi police, jailers and intelligence agents, many of them holding the same jobs they had under Hussein, are `committing systematic torture and other abuses.'" As a result, Iraqis are routinely beaten, hung and shocked with electrical wires. Meanwhile, the ACLU has released more documents of prison abuse in American-controlled prisons. Although it is unclear whether the abuses described in the documents are new, the documents indicate a 'clear pattern of abuse' that stretches well beyond "a few bad apples."
Rumors of large budget cuts began swirling in May 2004 when a White House budget memorandum warned government agencies that if Bush won reelection, his 2006 budget would seek cuts in education, veteran's affairs, environmental protection, and urban development. While on the campaign trail, Bush boasted of his administration's commitment to education and veteran affairs but his 2006 budget is expected to reduce the funding for the Department of Education to $1.5 billion from $1.7 billion, and cut Department of Veterans Affairs expenditures back below the 2004 level.
In an effort to restore what White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card called "very, very strong discipline," the Women, Infants and Children nutrition "would be cut by $122 million. Head Start, the early-childhood education program for the poor, would lose... 2.5% of its budget...The $78 million funding increase that Bush has touted for a homeownership program in 2005 would be nearly reversed in 2006 with a $53 million cut [and the] National Institutes of Health spending would be cut 2.1%."
The media is reporting that the theme for Bush's forthcoming inauguration address will be 'freedom.' The context: Iraq. I have previously written of the disparity between American and Iraqi perception (as it pertains to the progress and invasion of Iraq). While Americans are more likely to accept Bush's rationale for war, a greater number of Iraqis see some of the positive progress on the ground. The former is of greater importance.
A recent pre-election poll questioned Iraqi opinion about the (then) upcoming American presidential elections. A survey of 2,000 Iraqis from around the country showed that 58% of Iraqis didn't care who won the U.S. presidential elections. Of those who did care, 22.5% preferred John Kerry and 16% preferred President Bush.
Fred Kaplan points out that Condi didn't answer any substantive questions (Would Americans pull out if the elected government asked them to? How do you define torture? Would it be possible to invade Iran? etc...) and didn't explain how Bush's second term policies would differ from his first. Something most Americans have hoped for. But Rice also didn't' admit any of Bush's um... mistakes.
