BillHobbs.com is a frequently updated blog of original reporting and commentary by Bill Hobbs, a longtime Nashville journalist and media relations adviser. I am currently serving as communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, a job I began on Oct. 29, 2007.
Mustafa Binavy, 37, had a satisfied smile on his face as he left the Fraternal Order of Police building on Welshwood Drive yesterday afternoon.
"I am a registered voter," said Binavy, beaming. "We've been waiting for this day for a long time. I never believed we would be able to vote. This is a great achievement."
Binavy, a resident of Nashville for 12 years who served as a translator in the recent Iraq war, was among the estimated 200 to 400 Iraqi expatriates who registered to vote yesterday in next week's Iraq National Assembly balloting. Exact numbers won't be known until they are officially released by voting organizers today or tomorrow.
... Tahsin Mohammad, a Nashvillian for 10 years, came with seven members of his extended family to register. There would have been more, he explained, but several members of his family did not escape when Saddam Hussein focused his wrath on Kurdish territory in the late 1980s, including killing thousands in northern Iraq with chemical weapons.
"Two of my sons, babies, were killed. Two of my brothers were killed fighting with the peshmerga," he said, referring to the Kurdish fighters who have fought for a united Kurdistan. "I'm very pleased to vote. I'm happy."
Congratulations to Mr. Binavy, Mr. Mohammad, and all the Iraqi expats registering to vote in Iraq's upcoming election. You are on the front line of the war on terror just as surely as the troops in the combat zone as ballots, ultimately, will prove more powerful even that bullets in defeating the terrorists who are trying to defeat Iraq.
Posted in Iraq
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Comments
Who did he vote for? Kang or Kodos? Oh thats right...no names on the ballets.
Posted by: John Gillnitz at January 18, 2005 11:22 AM
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