:
Sun/Mon Overnight - Jan 31 -

A CHAPTER CLOSES -

While we're watching the end of an era in Iraq, I think we may also be seeing the end of a chapter in the Jarrar family's life. They are no longer "A Family in Baghdad." And they may never be that again.

Faiza is currently posting from Amman. Just before the election in Iraq on Friday, January 28th, she writes:

*The elected candidates are going to discuss very dangerous issue like separating mosque from state, whether religion is the only source of law, the rights for different religious and ethnic groups, the relationships with neighbouring countries including Israel, the relationship with the occupying forces and whether they will be asked to withdraw their forces from Iraq or not...*

+ Faiza seems strangely preoccupied with Israel, which suddenly pops up out of nowhere. But Iraq does not share any common borders with Israel which might as well be located on an entirely different planet. The only common link between them is fleeting: the nostalgia factor. There are some elderly Iraqi Jews who live in Israel, but they have not expressed any desire to move back to Iraq.

*I believe that the violence in Iraq is linked directly to the presence of occupation. Violence won’t stop as long as the occupying forces are inside the country...*

+ Faiza confuses the cause with the effect. The reason the Allied Forces are in Iraq is because of the violence there. They had an aggressive war criminal government which violently invaded two of their neighbors and gassed many of the people inside their own country.

*But even here in Amman, where the security situation is really stable, the number announced about the registered voters are really low...*

+ That number would be low; it was to be expected. Most of the Iraqis who went on hiatus in Amman are Sunni and many of them (but not all) are Baathists or former Saddam associates.

* * * * *

Meanwhile, Raed Jarrar writes on Saturday, Jan 29: *The romantic Iraqi elections will open the doors of hell.*

+ Raed seems to be expecting civil war in Iraq, but doesn't present any evidence which suggests that prospect to him.

On Sunday, Raed posts: *It is well known all over Iraq now that if you didn't go to vote, the government will cut your monthly food rations. EVERYONE is talking about this, and EVERYONE believes it too!!! and this is one of the main reasons why millions of poor and destroyed Iraqis were dragged out of their homes today and sent to election centers in the middle of explosions and bullets. They don't give a damn about elections, they want food. Millions of Iraqis don't have the possibility of testing whether this rumor is true or false, this is about surviving. They are ready to put their lives in danger to go get their monthly food rations...*

Raed claims that the elections were illegal and asserts: *Voter Turnout Is NOT Enough to Legitimise Elections!*

He then issues what seems like a vague threat of revenge:

*Today's elections were another shameful page in the long Bush war on Iraq; these elections were another mistake that Bush and the occupying armies will pay for in the near future.*

* * * * *

Khalid Jarrar writes on Sunday: *Today was full of explosions. I didn't leave the house...*

+ That seems sensible enough. He then goes on to explain how, he believes, the voting system there operates:

*The way the voting happened, is that you go to the voting center, and you go to the man who is your ration dealer, the one who you take the ration from every month; so you tell him that you are gonna vote, he marks your name on his list, and then you vote!!!

That way the goverment will know exactly who voted and who didn't. Two dealers said that the next year's card won't be given to those who didn't vote...*

+ That sounds a bit like the Oil For Food program, doesn't it?

* * * * *

+ I feel like I've got a kind of Jet Lag from the Iraqi Elections, probably due in large part to the time difference between here and there. I've been a wreck all day, though I took a nap. I hope I recover by tomorrow.

...