ELECTIONS?

Futile elections in Iraq where the votes are brought in by

donkey carts dodging sniper fire continue. A lot of donkeys

are going to die. Unlike citizen voters they do not risk having

an ink stained finger cut off by an avenging Taliban enforcer.

The "Taliban" varies just as the past drafts in the U.S. consisted

of desparate young citizens. They are not all die hard idealist

on a Jihad but a diverse group. Estimations are that less

than10% of them are hard core idealistic Taliban. The rest

are basically a result of the economic and political chaos.

They are mostly paid mercenaries the unemployed, soldiers

of fortune and poorly paid reluctant recruits forced into service.

They are the young who are often hungry and immature.

Imagine a recruit from a black ghetto in Chicago or the back

woods of Arkansas and you can imagine the position of most

taliban soldiers. It is simple a matter of survival just as a it was

a trail out of the Ghetto and out of an economically depressed

areas in the U.S. Ask yourself what percentage of draftees

during the final phase Korean War were Patriots? The existence

of organizations such as the Taliban is due to irresponsible

political/economic policies by most nations. Legions of poor and

unemployed people invite discord, revolutions, and chaotic

social collapse. We are the enemy not the Taliban. We have

failed just as theTaliban will fail due to greed and misguided

religious and political beliefs.

The media has reported a large turnout for the elections in

Iraq.This is a fable told by the errant press. The people

of Iraq were kept away from the polls by the threat of violent

reprisals from both the Taliban and local officials. Holding

an election inIraq is comparable to the fear blacks experienced

when they thought of registering to vote. Before extensive civil

rights legislation it was simply dangerous for a black who

ventured to register. You did not loose a finger but the prospect

of death and destruction of personal property was a reality. Then

the fear of reprisals by whites was just as real as threats from

the Taliban now.

Enforcing or supporting an election in a cloud of chaos is futile.

The cost of American support for elections is a huge waste

of American taxpayers money. More importantly the loss of

American lives for a futile war or "election" is unforgivable.

There is much to learn form our own past history of violence

and suppression.