Logistical issues threaten to undermine Iraqi elections.

December 13, 2004 2:19 AM

Logistical issues threaten to undermine Iraqi elections. "I just can't see how we can hold these elections," an American consultant working with Iraqi election planners said on the condition of anonymity." I found out about this story, btw, from someone working on the elections in Baghdad. They write: "We've got a leak. Someone, an American, is talking to the press. And ___ is *pissed*. It's a good article, though... er, even though I'm not commenting on it. Or expressing an opinion. But if you've got any interest in these elections, you should read it."
They also cited several of the problems they are having: "Because our meal times are regulated by (KBR), it only allows us about five hours a day . . . with our Iraqi counterparts. Iraqis bolt for home at around 3 PM to avoid being shot in the head or blown up . . . After a mortar attack, car bomb, or any other security related exercise, the US military shuts down the Iraqna mobile phone network . . . We have become the focal point for . . . everything that the Iraqi staff cannot handle . . . which includes getting people (and) equipment into the building, getting water (and) lunch for day laborers, preventing mass resignations due to salary disputes, replacing windows broken by car bombs, removing trash, cleaning toilets, fixing locks, moving (and unpacking) boxes . . . It makes it difficult to get our actual jobs done, although I have forgotten what those are."
posted by insomnia_lj (6 comments total)

Duh.
posted by graventy at 3:31 AM on December 13, 2004

Interesting...wish it was longer. Tom Friedman had an interesting idea about fixing the election problem yesterday. Too bad most of the world has a vested interest in seeing Bush fail.

I remember, during the election, Repubs asking "How will Kerry get other nations to pitch in to the Iraq effort? By not being Bush?" And the obvious answer was "Yes, dumbass." I guess we'll never get to test it out.
posted by fungible at 7:31 AM on December 13, 2004

So the Iraqis won't get an opportunity to "vote" for our CIA stooge Chalabi Allawi.

Bet that really hurts for them, seeing as how they are going without adequate food, water, sanitation, fuel, electricity, jobs, health care or any other basic need for civilized life. Not to mention how easily they can get "liberated" from their lives in an occupied country.

And the Friedman article, per his usual work, sucks. But thanks for pointing it out.
posted by nofundy at 8:59 AM on December 13, 2004

Gee, too bad so many of the Arabic/Pashtu/Pharsi linguists got farmed out to day labour jobs after two years+ of intense language training and subsequently split when their time was up. It would have been useful to actually have translators around to tap into the Iraqna phone net.
posted by buzzman at 11:18 AM on December 13, 2004

"making progress"
posted by matteo at 12:40 PM on December 13, 2004

Lot of anonymous comments in both the article and FPP.. who is behind these comments and why? Could be true. Could not be true. Could be somewhere in the middle. Who knows.
posted by stbalbach at 8:31 PM on December 13, 2004