|
Most Iraqi Kurds preferred McCain
28.10.2008
By Mark MacKinnon
|
|
|
The Middle East Electoral College: Iraq results
October 28, 2008
So colour Iraq neither red nor blue. Or rather,
colour it either, depending on what part of the
country you're talking about.
During the course the week I spent in
Kurdistan-Northern Iraq, I asked more than two dozen
Iraqis whether they'd prefer to see John McCain or
Barrack Obama win the White House on Nov. 4.
The results were split almost perfectly down the
middle. Most Kurds preferred McCain,www.ekurd.net
seeing him as more
likely to support their dream of independence and
less likely to withdraw American troops from the
country. Kurds, who actually speak with affection of
George W. Bush, fear that a U.S. withdrawal would
plunge the country into a new civil war that they
could not stay out of.
The Arabs I met, however, were more likely to
support Obama, believing that he is more likely to
adopt different policies than Bush, the man they
blame for destroying this country. |
map from: Globe.and.Mail |
Here's a taste of what
some of the Iraqis I spoke to had to say on this
question:
We cannot ask the U.S. troops to leave because that
will lead to civil war
. Obama's policy is a rapid
withdrawal of American troops. This will not benefit
the Iraqi people in general. Rahman Gharib,www.ekurd.net
42, a journalist
affiliated with the Communist Party of Kurdistan.
I prefer the black one. He will pay more attention
to the situation in Iraq. Walid Chiad, 42, an
Arab refugee from Baghdad currently living in Kirkuk.
I think America needs some change. People get sick
and tired of a style, a face or a colour. Father
Sabri al-Maqdessy, priest at St. Joseph's Church in
Ainkawa.
A third opinion which was shared by Arabs and Kurds
alike is that it won't make much difference who wins
and that Iraq will suffer under either man's
leadership.
Bush destroyed Iraq. He took our oil and gave us
nothing in return, Ayyad Manfi, the mukhtar, or
leader, of a refugee camp near Sulaimaniyah for
former Baghdad residents. We don't believe in this
election. Whatever they say, they will change their
promises later.
So, how to award Iraq's 146 electors? My poll was
obviously skewed by the fact I was in the Kurdish
north of the country. The Arab refugees I spoke to
were also uniformly Sunni, meaning this already
unscientific poll takes almost no account of the
feelings of the country's largest community, the
Shiites.
The good news is that not every U.S. state is
winner-take-all and you could argue that Iraq is
hardly one country anymore so I'm doling out the
electors based on the most obvious line: McCain has
won Iraqi Kurdistan,www.ekurd.net
Obama takes Sunni and
Shia Iraq (the latter judgment based on the fact
Shia leaders have been nearly unanimous in calling
for a speedy U.S. withdrawal from the country, which
is closest to Obama's policy). Kurds make up roughly
20 per cent of Iraq's population, so McCain gets 20
per cent of the votes, or 29 electors. Obama gets
the remaining 117.
Arbitrary? Perhaps. But I'm the one battling to hold
my insides in after eating at an Iraqi roadside
diner and spending sleepless nights at the Simpan
Hotel, so I get to make the call. You're at home
surfing the Internet during a commercial break in
Hockey Night in Canada, so you just get to complain
about it in the comments section below.
Our running total now shows Obama surging from
behind to take the lead:
Barack Obama (Dem.) 147 votes
John McCain (Rep.) 65 votes
Next up, Turkey, which has a dominant 175 votes in
the 538-seat electoral college. If Obama wins it,
he'll shoot past the 270 mark needed to secure
victory, meaning my little polling project could
effectively be over long before election day. If
McCain wins it, we've got a race to the wire, with
Syria, Lebanon and Jordan deciding who takes the
prize.
Copyright, respective author or news agency,
theglobeandmail com
Top |
Kurd Net
does not take credit for and is not responsible for the content of news
information on this page
|
ฎ
