Why I refuse to vote this election
BY: HIBA OBEED
Staff Writer
Whilst sitting in the campus cafeteria, I was approached by an older woman encouraging students to register to vote. “Are you registered to vote?” she asked.
I responded, “No.”
“Are you old enough?”
“Yes.”
“Would you like to register?”
“No.”
“Are you sure? This is an important election.”
“I know that.”
I ended the conversation as quickly as possible, but I wanted to say, “What election isn’t? Who do YOU think I should vote for? The woman who will fund the killing of my people, or the man who will do the same?”
My family, one of many, were victims of “The Iraq War.” We decided to leave whatever was left of our homeland, now completely destabilized economically, socially, and politically, to live a better life. Like many Arab-Americans, I have grown up in the same country that destroyed mine, and I’m left to come to terms with that fact. This election year has been especially testing for every Arab I know. Countless times, my community has been faced with the repulsive expectation to vote to kill our own families. Now, there is no excuse to feign ignorance.
Since at least 1967, the United States of America has found it fit to fund and aid Israel on its unfathomably inhumane and cruel mission to force Palestinians out of their own homes and land, by any means necessary. The citizens of the U.S. have generally found it fit themselves to ignore this gross mishandling of “foreign affairs” for almost a century, and only since the events of October 7th have they finally chosen to pay a little more attention.
Perhaps this late surge of interest in the human rights of those living across the world was due to lack of information, coverage, or awareness. Perhaps those that once voted in favor of former president George W. Bush—who took advantage of the lingering post-September 11th fears to invade and destroy my country—will reconsider the effects of their vote this election. After all, in a clip easily found on Youtube, Bush himself recently stated in a speech criticizing Russia, “[T]he decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq—I mean of Ukraine [laughs]. . . Iraq too—anyway—” After this, the crowd laughs.
For as long as this country has existed, and even some time before, there has been a consistent audacity of its people to reign terror on the world, and laugh about it. Because the people laughing are unaffected, the voters of this upcoming election who are shocked at my refusal to vote towards a death sentence are unaffected.
I want to close by sharing my recollection of one final clip on Youtube. Back to 2008, while Bush was giving a speech during a press conference in Baghdad, Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zaidi stood up and threw his shoes at him whilst shouting in Arabic, “This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog!” I feel a surge of pride every time I rewatch that moment.
In response, Bush said, “So what if the guy threw a shoe at me? . . . I consider it an important step on the road toward an Iraq that can sustain itself, govern itself, and defend itself.”
I hope the irony is not lost on you. The same man who invaded and destroyed my country based on a complete lie, sees an Iraqi journalist’s act of defiance against him as a sign of progress from the very destruction he caused. He sees himself as the saint pioneering a “stronger” Iraq. Perhaps one day, our Presidents will laugh on national television about the atrocities they helped facilitate in Palestine, and maybe they’ll even clap for the resistance fighters they themselves sought to destroy.
I will not vote to kill my people. It is up to American citizens to decide to come to terms with what their votes truly will do, and have been doing to the lives of those in foreign countries.
