Falah Hassan al-Naqib, Iraq’s Interior Minister, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that anyone who fails to vote in the upcoming elections is guilty of a criminal act:
“‘If any group does not participate in the elections, it will constitute treason,’ al-Naqib said, adding that ‘boycotting the elections will not produce a National Assembly that represents the Iraqi people’ but instead will bring on ‘a civil war that will divide the country.'”
And just to make sure everyone participates in this mandatory exercise of “freedom,” on election day the entire country is going on lockdown: closed borders, a lengthened curfew, and “about 300,000 Iraqi and multinational troops” on the streets “providing security” — and also no doubt checking to see who votes and who doesn’t. Making abstention just as risky as voting is bound to increase turnout.
As George W. Bush has repeatedly stated:
“You’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists.”
Or, as Henry Ford once said:
“People can have the Model T in any color — so long as it’s black.”