Slashdot Mirror
January Elections in Iraq?
bettiwettiwoo writes "Last week Kofi Annan claimed, in a BBC interview, that: 'You cannot have credible elections [in Iraq] if the security conditions continue as they are now.' Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi disagreed ('pointedly disagreed', according to the International Herald Tribune):'We definitely are going to stick to the timetable of elections in January ... Democracy is going to prevail and is going to win in Iraq.' According to Tony Blair: 'The people who are trying to stop that Iraq coming about, who are engaged in killing, maiming and acts of terrorism, are people who are opposed... to every single one of the values that we in countries like this hold dear.' Iraq the Model points to an IRI poll which states: 'In a stunning display of support for democracy and a strong rebuttal to critics of efforts to bring democratic reform to Iraq, 87% of Iraqis indicated that they plan to vote in January elections. Expanding on the theme, 77% said that "regular, fair elections" were the most important political right for the Iraqi people and 58% felt that Iraqi-style democracy was likely to succeed.' It would appear that the poll was undertaken sometime in July/August this year, but if such a large majority of the Iraqi population continues to favour elections, would it really be fair to the Iraqis to postpone the January elections whatever the security situation and whomever might be against them?"
You say that very authoritatively, that poverty is the "biggest threat to 'the world'." I'm not sure how you can be so sure about it. Sounds like propaganda.
I mean, what does it mean to be a threat to 'the world'? Can you threaten the world?
It seems like poverty is maybe the biggest threat to poor people, if to anyone, and you might argue that angry poor people are the biggest threat to rich people. I'm not even sure those two statements are true or make sense, but they seem clearer to me than "poverty is the biggest threat to the world".