Iraq - Good News Part 19

Chrenkoff's Good News Iraq Part 19 is up. This is a long one filled with all the good news legacy media will not report on. While the world's liberal press paint Iraq as a disaster, the Iraqis themselves see things altogether differently.

Iraqi women, who due to past bloodshed constitute a clear majority of Iraqi population, are looking forward to building a better future through the democratic process.

According to the latest poll conducted by Women for Women International in Baghdad, Mosul and Basra, "94% of women surveyed want to secure legal rights for women; 84% of women want the right to vote on the final constitution; [and] nearly 80% of women believe that their participation in local and national councils should not be limited." As the report notes, "the most unexpected result of the survey is that despite increasing violence, particularly violence against women, 90.6% of Iraqi women reported that they are hopeful about their future.

"Other sections of Iraqi society are also excited about the coming election. On the streets of Baghdad, democracy makes more converts:

"Just months ago, Fattahlah Ghazi al-Esmaili was penning articles in support of Iraq's Shi'ite uprising as editor for Ishriqat, a newspaper for rebel cleric Sheik Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mahdi's Army militia.

"Now the 38-year-old has abandoned his Arab head scarf for a neat beige suit and is out pumping the flesh in his run for parliament at the head of a 180-candidate list representing the impoverished Shi'ites of Sadr City.

" 'Before, we were men of the Mahdi's Army. Now we are men of politics,' says the journalist, who goes by the pen name Fattah al-Sheikh. 'Yesterday, we were out on the streets. Today, we are here campaigning, and hopefully tomorrow, we'll be in the presidential palace'.

"It has been a stunning transformation: "Brig. Gen. Jeffery Hammond of the 1st Cavalry Division, says Sadr City is the safest place in or around Baghdad. About 18,000 people have reconstruction jobs, he says, earning about $6 a day. 'Sadr City is what the future of Iraq can look like,' he says. Those who were once taking up arms are now talking democracy. 'Before, the men were buying black cloth for their (martyrs') banners. Now for the election, we are buying white cloths' for posters, says candidate Fatah al-Sheikh." Even the Iraqi Islamic Party is now cracking: "Iraq's principal Sunni Muslim political party conceded... that its effort to delay Iraq's parliamentary election had failed and that it was preparing a strategy to influence the elected government following the vote on Jan. 30." But still more encouragement is being given to recalcitrants:...

If you want to get a much better picture of what is really happening in Iraq, Chrenkoff is a must read.

The human spirit craves freedom and Iraq, like Afghanistan, will be a success, the Iraqis themselves will see to that.
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