by James Glaser
January 24, 2005

George Bush has told us that there will be peace in Iraq after this election. Many in Washington claim the election will be the opening for a civil; war, like there isn't one going on now.

Bush also touts the election they had in Afghanistan this last year as an example of how much good we can bring to a country with our guns and bombs. "American-occupied Afghanistan is now the world's premier narco-state." That was a headline I read this past weekend and here is another, "Afghan Women Still in Chains Under Karzai "

In Scotland's The Sunday Herald, they report, "It was three years ago that George Bush triumphantly announced, 'the mothers and daughters of Afghanistan were captives in their own homes, forbidden from working or going to school—today they are free.'"

Most Afghan women still wear the Burqa, "through fear of attack and social pressure, a third of women in Kabul do not leave the house, forbidden from doing so by male members of the family and it is still almost impossible for a woman to get a divorce. Last month saw the opening of Afghanistan's first job center for women. Business has been slow. Since the fall of the Taliban, only 2-3% of women have returned to work."

But you would never know of those conditions if you listened to George Bush. According to him, Afghanistan is a model for the Middle East to see what democracy can do for them.

Afghanistan has a President in Armid Karzai, but he only governs the capital city of Kabul and a small area right around it. The Afghan President is still protected 24 hours a day by American troops and Special Forces. The rest of the country is under the control of War Lords who also control the country's narcotic industry.

In a United Nations report of 18 November 2004, it is reported, "With 131,000 hectares dedicated to opium farming, Afghanistan has established a double record—the highest drug cultivation in the country's history, and the largest in the world." "This year (2004) cultivation in Afghanistan has increased by 64% according to the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004."

It doesn't matter what George Bush says or what he thinks, when a country has an Opium Survey, it is in trouble. Sure Afghanistan had an election and on paper you can say they have a democracy, but that doesn't mean that the people have freedom or that women get rights, it just means that the United States paid enough money to enough people so the country could hold an election. If you elect crooks or if the criminals are so strong the central government can do nothing, then the election does nothing and means nothing.

This Sunday everyone from the Bush administration who was on a Sunday Political Talk Show was asked what kind of turn out would be needed in Iraq to say this election was legitimate and not one of them would put a number out there. Washington was hoping that over one million Iraqi Exiles would vote and you know we are putting up millions of dollars to give them that right, but because the percent of these people voting was so low, Washington has changed the voting rules.

Reuters, "The registration deadline for Iraqis voting abroad in their country's Jan.30 election was extended by two days on Saturday amid low turnout in some of the 14 countries where voter registration centers were established."

In Jordan only 5,000 out of at least 150,000 eligible voters had registered. Out of the estimated 1 million eligible voters world wide, only 93,000 had registered. Here in America, it doesn't matter if you have become an American citizen and have lived in the States for over 30 years, you are still eligible to vote in Iraq's election.

There will be no International observers for this election either, because no one can be found foolish enough to actually go to Iraq on Election Day and observe at the polling places.

So Iraq will have their election and George Bush and his administration will hail it a victory for freedom and democracy, but if we look at what has really happened to Afghanistan after their election, we will see that this election is pretty much a sham too.

But you know, if this election gives George the excuse he needs to bring our troops home, that would be fine with me, but of course we should look to Afghanistan to see about troop withdrawals there. What we see, is that we still have thousands of troops in that country plus the hundreds protecting the Afghan President 24/7. Yes, Americans are still getting killed and wounded in Afghanistan, so don't get your hopes up too much.