Election 2006

In many respects, the midterm elections are a referendum on American foreign policy in Iraq. A USA Today/ Gallup poll conducted between Oct. 23-26, found that 64 percent of likely voters named Iraq as their top priority, no matter which party wins control over Congress. The poll also indicated that voter concern over Iraq was rising substantially, receiving 29 percent in April, and 47 percent in September.

Although media attention has occasionally been allotted to the concerns of families of U.S. servicemen and women in Iraq, little if any attention has been given to how actual Iraqis view this election. It’s almost as though Iraq has become a domestic U.S. concern, detached from the repercussions on Iraqis themselves.

Ali Fadhil, 29, is one of approximately 90,000 Iraqis in the U.S. who observed the recent election season. With two parents, seven brothers, and one sister living in East Baghdad, near Sadr City, his concerns do not rise and fall with opinion polls.

Mr. Fadhil is a Fulbright Fellow studying at the New York University School of Journalism. He is also a trained doctor and an accomplished journalist who has produced five independent films on issues as diverse as the second U.S. attack on the Iraqi city of Falluja in November 2004, and the question of billions of dollars in reconstruction aid earmarked for Iraq that has gone missing. One of his films won an award from Amnesty International, and he was named the Young Journalist of the Year by the Foreign Press Association for 2005.

So how does someone with deep personal attachments and professional experience in one of the world’s most important contemporary political theaters perceive the Nov. 7 U.S. elections?

“It won’t make a difference,” he said with all frankness. “Of course Bush is an idiot and his policies have been disastrous for the country. But the Democrats also have no clue what to do.”

Mr. Fadhil’s grim outlook is underscored by a deep pessimism about what is taking place on the ground in Iraq, which he believes is not adequately portrayed by the U.S. media. “The situation is completely out of control. U.S. policies have unleashed uncontrollable militias across the country, while the U.S.-supported Iraqi government, composed of fundamentalist Shi’a Islamists, is the worst thing that could happen to us after 35 years of dictatorship.”

Mr. Fadhil admits he opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq to begin with. But this was not out of fealty to the former regime, but rather cynicism regarding what could be achieved. “I knew many Iraqis would die. We also remembered what happened in 1991,” he said, referring to the failed popular uprising that took place in the wake of the 1991 Gulf War, which was ruthlessly repressed. That uprising had initially been encouraged by former U.S. president George Bush senior, but once it began, U.S. forces failed to intervene to prevent it from being crushed. In 2001, Mr. Fadhil was forced to flee Iraq with his wife Zeina, fearing arrest by the former regime for running a simple printing business. After spending two years in Yemen, he returned to Iraq in 2003 after the fall of the Hussein regime, dreaming that “Iraq could become the best country in the world.”

Today his sense of resignation to the terrifying reality Iraq has become verges on the nihilistic. “There is no solution to the situation. If the Republicans win and ‘stay the course,’ the situation will only deteriorate. If the Democrats win, and they make drastic changes, it is likely to be equally as disastrous, leading to more bloodshed.”

For him, the results of the midterm elections are less a referendum on policy than a question over “how fast the situation is going to get worse,” he said.

What then is the best option, given the circumstances? “I support an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq.” Although he acknowledges that the country will witness a bloody power struggle, “at least a solution can begin to come about. It cannot start when the U.S. remains there.”

Despite the severity of the stakes at hand, Mr. Fadhil is perplexed by the U.S. political climate in the run up to the elections. “People seem apathetic about the elections. Many aren’t even registered, even amongst those who are educated. The U.S. may have the best political system in the world, but it doesn’t mean anything unless people vote.”