‘They Stood Their Ground’: a conversation with Ibrahim al-Jaafari

The Prime Minister of Iraq is in conversation here at the Council on Foreign Relations, Washington, DC. He invoked the memory of a young Iraqi. “One of the families in Iraq who came to vote [on January 31 2005] was met by terrorists, who wanted to throw a grenade. One of the youths, Iraqi youths, jumped on the person who had the grenade. That person was martyred, and that family that came to vote continued to vote. They stayed where they were. They voted. They stood their ground. They stood fast. And this is the way that the Iraqi people show their determination and their courage and their stamina and their enthusiasm.” Read it all. (AJ)