"What a bloody charade." I'd never read anything of his, but it showed up on Google News tonight and it's beyond belief, at least for my uninitiated eyes. Robert Fisk brings us another treasure I guess.
I'll leave it to others to be thorough, but just a few gems that popped out at me if you haven't seen it:
1. 'Many Iraqis do not know the names of the candidates, let alone their policies.'
Wow, what a powerful indictment of representative government. Watch out! He's a genius! This story hit the Internet about the same time voter turnout hit 70% and climbing. I don't know when the last time we hit that in America, and I can only imagine the percentage of people who don't know the name, much less the policies of our sitting President. Contrary to international opinion, we're doing just fine that way, but thanks Robbie. I'll trust under-informed voters over a dictator most days. I guess we'll agree to disagree.
2. 'The majority Shi'as, oppressed under Hussein, are expected to take a majority in the polling at the expense of the formerly dominant Sunnis.'
Actually that'd be what happens in a pure democracy, but fortunately Iraqis have a constitution. That's why there are constitutions in the first place. Obviously the majority is expected to take the majority in polling, but that's not at the expense of anyone necessarily. Where does this guy live?
3. 'The reality is that much of Iraq has become a free-fire zone (for reference, see under "Vietnam")'
Reality is the last thing Robert Fisk is qualified to report on. This is simply not the case. He might as well be claiming dragons are flying over the southern marshes. I can't prove that they're not, but the claim is in no way related to "reality" or any word root or derivation thereof.
4. 'And then the manipulation will begin and the claims of fraud and the admissions that the elections might be "flawed" in some areas.'
Again, welcome to Elections 101. People don't like losing elections (for reference, see under "America"). It doesn't make the system anything close to a "charade", it makes it very normal. So the Sunnis don't want to take part as much as the rest of the country. Big deal. They will.
So when Mr. Fisk gets all this completely wrong, does he ever go back and say "Oops"? No, of course not. Like anyone else who sits and whines and does nothing, he looks forward and sees doom, he looks backward and calls out mistakes of others, and his column necessarily retains no memory whatsoever of his numberless errors.
What a bloody moron.
7 comments:
Fisk's point about the Iraqis not knowing the names of candidates is misleading. The Iraqis are voting for a list under a PR system, so the names of the people on the list are a bit of a side issue aren't they?
Nice post.
You have to wonder about a guy like Fisk... doesn't he ever want to be happy about anything?
Oh but he is. He's happy about US casualties in Iraq, for one. They make him look smart.
Knowing the names of the candidates is completely irrelevant. Who knows the names of their electoral college representatives?
The idiotic claim that "party platforms are unknown" is my favorite. To whom are they unknown, I wonder? The left has spent so much time obsessing over 'the puppet allawi' they seem to have missed the al daawa website, the SCIRI website, the PUK website etc etc etc. Projection aint just a river in egypt!
Hi there. Got to your blog via Instapundit.
Your 2nd-to-last paragraph is a gem. Particularly:
"...he looks forward and sees doom, he looks backward and calls out mistakes of others, and his column necessarily retains no memory whatsoever of his numberless errors."
With slight modification, I'd love to stea...um, borrow this, for use as a soundbite against a debate opponent sometime in the future.
Fisk writes:
"In the Karada district, we found three truckloads of youths yesterday, all brandishing Iraqi flags, all - like the unemployed who have been sticking posters to Baghdad's walls - paid by the government to "advertise" the election. And there was a cameraman from Iraqi state television, of course, which is controlled by Iyad Allawi's "interim" government."
I wonder what he has to say about the SEIU paying union members their full salary to come down to Florida for 9 months to do " independent" get out the vote work while wearing "push Bush out the door in 2004'" buttons.
I remember as a kid getting 10 bucks an hour to hang posters for a local democrat in Brooklyn. What color is the sky in Mr. Fisk's world?
Thanks for the comments everyone.
"With slight modification, I'd love to stea...um, borrow this, for use as a soundbite against a debate opponent sometime in the future."
I'm flattered of course-- and have at it. But if you massage it into a gem, send it back my way too, it's a sentiment I'd love to be able to express briefly, clearly, eloquently, etc.
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