"Obviously, you can't have free and fair elections, in the President's view, if Syria continues to have a military and security service presence inside Lebanon'
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan .
Now if George W Bush thinks the presence of foreign troops in Lebanon makes free and fair elections impossible, does he also think free and fair elections are impossible in Iraq while it is still occupied?
Originally posted by eagles54Then, by the same logic, they can be held in Lebanon.
Free and fair elections have already been held in Iraq.
What's the difference - oh yes, the occupying forces are mostly from the US, so that makes it ok then.
Do you people understand the concept of double standards?
Originally posted by eagles54No, I don't believe free and fair elections can be held in Lebanon with the Syrians present, and I don't believe that the recent elections in Iraq were free and fair, because of the presence of US and other occupying troops.
Let me ask you this Redmike, do you believe free and fair elections can be held in Lebanon with Syrian troops there? Do you believe that Syria would not try to influence the election to its liking?
By the way, who are 'you people?'
By 'you people', I mean apologists for Bush and his holy war.
Originally posted by steerpikeIts amazing that some people don't see the complete and utter hypocrisy of the whole bush regime.
"Obviously, you can't have free and fair elections, in the President's view, if Syria continues to have a military and security service presence inside Lebanon'
Press Briefing by Scott McClellan .
Now if George W Bush thinks the presence of foreign troops in Lebanon makes free and fair elections impossible, does he also think free and fair elections are impossible in Iraq while it is still occupied?
D
Their have been free and fair elections for the Lebanese Parliament in 1992, 1996 and 2000; all these elected governments have wished Syrian troops to remain for the present. That the presence of Syrian troops in Lebanon means there can't be free and fair elections is nonsense; there are US troops in Germany, Italy, Japan and dozens of other countries and they have free and fair elections. You can assume two things: one is the US government is creating a red herring to justify demands on Lebanon's existing government that they tell Syria to withdraw its troops and two is that the opposition will almost certainly lose the elections scheduled in May(500,000 pro-government demonstrators in Beirut yesterday in a country of less than 4 million) and that Bush is attempting to discredit the election before it takes place because he is trying to deceive the American people into believing that most Lebanese don't support the government even if it wins the elections. The Western press is helping out by spreading such misinformation as the May elections will be the first "free" ones in Lebanese history. Lies.
The situation in Iraq is hardly comparable. First, the United States and others invaded Iraq; the Syrians were invited in and remain at the behest of the Lebanese government. Second, assuming that the recent elections were "fair" in Iraq (which is dubious) the body elected as no power but to propose a constitution; it has not been granted any lawmaking authority under the relevant agreements. ALL decisions in Iraq are made by the US government at this point and will be until our troops are eventually withdrawn.