It's now just a matter of hours until the polls open in Iraq. Already during the past week there has been enormous, joyous and enthusiastic turnout among ex-patriot Iraqis all over the world. Hundreds of thousands turned out to vote in the first free Iraqi election in half a century. Voting went smoothely almost everywhere, except for one incident in Australia where Islamic extremists turned out to protest the election and were attacked by offended Iraqi voters. For a great set of photos of celbratory voters check out the photo montrage at The Washington Post.
Voting in Iraq itself obviously won't be as trouble free as it has been for those living outside the troubled country. A free election is the greatest possible threat to the would-be tyrants and fundamentalist extremists who want to take over the country through violence. Iraqi Security forces and the Coalition Military are taking every possible security measure to protect the polling places to the extent of deploying almost 300,000 troops and police, barricading streets and creating protected waiting areas outside of the polls. This may make voting somewhat intimidating and inconvenient, but safety is the first priority.
In the more stable regions of the country such as the Kurdish areas in the north and the large city of Basra in the south little violence is expected. Voter turnout will be large and enthusiastic and no one is going to tolerate attempts to disrupt the election. Local militias are expected to augment police forces and help escort voters to the polls. A turnout of 80% or higher is a reasonable expectation.
In the middle part of the country, in the 'Sunni Triangle' and Baghdad, things are much more tense. This is where the most troops are concentrated and the most extreme measures are being taken to protect voters. Voters in Baghdad will have to reach the polls on foot because barricades set up to prevent attacks on the polls and car-bombs also block peaceful traffic. Once they get close to polling locations they will be surrounded by protective barricades and lots and lots of troops which will hopefully be sufficient to deter violence. Car bombing polling locations once the election has started will be nearly impossible and the largest danger is likely to be from relatively innacurate rocket attacks. or attacks on groups of voters before they get to the polls.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - RJ
The mainstream media will paint this election as a disaster and a sham no matter the outcome. Bloggers must be willing to find the actual facts and post them.
Bloggers! At Arms!
2 - Temple Stark
RJ - check the Washington Post (Big media last tiem i checked) link cited by Dave - and shut up already about "the media." If it goes wrong you'll blame the media. if it goes right you won't give any credit to "the media."
We know your story there. No news there.
It's politics.
Incidentally, if I didn't know any of the candidates I was voting for; for Congress, for city council, for state representaive, I'd be pissed as a voter and I really wouldn't consider it "Democracy," American style.
It's much more involved than that, but my brain stops at that every time I remember it - people don't know who their candidates are.
3 - Dave Nalle
>>RJ - check the Washington Post (Big media last tiem i checked) link cited by Dave - and shut up already about "the media." If it goes wrong you'll blame the media. if it goes right you won't give any credit to "the media."<<
I'm very proud of the Washington Post. It's my hometown paper and it's turning into the only major newspaper with any real credibility and the will to provide real balanced coverage.
>>Incidentally, if I didn't know any of the candidates I was voting for; for Congress, for city council, for state representaive, I'd be pissed as a voter and I really wouldn't consider it "Democracy," American style.<<
It's certainly not democracy American style, but it's a very creative way to address the unique difficulties of implementing democracy in the conditions which exist in Iraq. And contrary to first impressions, many of the candidates are known, especially for local offices up to the level of governors. Those are the offices where this is much more of an American style election because they are voting directly for the candidates by office.
Dave
4 - Scott
Media or no media, what happens in Iraq, be it good or bad, is gonna go down no matter what the "media" reports. Will some people be killed? Probably. Will most Iraqis vote. Probably. Which story will bring bigger ratings? The killings, of course. The only media "bias" is towards making money and that's a fact. I've had enough of this "liberal media" and "conservative media" bullshit. Get over it everyone.
5 - Dave Nalle
About an hour ago Ali Fahdil went to vote in Iraq. He's going to post his experiences when he gets back home. The report's not up on his blog yet, but it will be up there at any moment. He's one of the better, more expressive Iraqi bloggers and his take on the voting experience will be informative.
Everyone should check it out at Free Iraqi. If he hasn't posted his report yet, go back and keep going back until he does.
Dave
6 - Dave Nalle
I should add that Ali lives in Baghdad, so his voting situation will be about as precarious as any in Iraq, so his report ought to be pretty telling.
Dave
7 - Temple Stark
Thanks, Scott. That's - pretty much - what I was talkin' 'bout.
8 - alienboy
Can someone tell me exactly WHEN it bacame okay for "journalists" to campaign rather than report?
Perhaps if the journalists left the opinions to their readers and concentrated more on letting us know what's going on, they might be worthy of the respect that they ought to deserve...
9 - alienboy
A small example of this is that the actual book used to hang this tripe on is actually written by a Frenchman!
Yes, a book attacking anti-Americanism, written by the USA's current European bogeyman, the French.
You see, the book was written by Jean-François Revel, not by this "Diarmid Cammell" that you namecheck; I assume he did the translation as his name doesn't appear on the book cover.
What with the French having tipped the balance during the American War of Indpendence, all this pro-Americanism from the country reactionaries love to hate must be really irritating...
I can see why you would want to hide the fact, Mr Nalle, it would get in the way of the hysterical bile you seem to want to pump out today.
The last 4 paragraphs of your original post are particularly depressing, written as they are full of hate and contempt for other voices and displaying total disregard for other views.
You really need to get over this imagined anti-Americanism thing (in particular, try to remember that we Europeans are America's best friends in the world and we have a vested interest that the USA does well) and try to get a handle on reality.
You may find the rest of the world is not as hostile as you fear...
10 - andy marsh
I keep hearing that we shouldn't bring up that whole french would be speaking german thing lately, so...if that's the case, I think we can also drop the we'd be speaking the queens english thing too. I'd say the U.S. has paid it's debt to France many times over. To say ALL Europeans are the USA's friend is way to big a generalization.
11 - Dave Nalle
Ali Fahdil did eventually get back from voting and has a great report on it. Like most of the huge number of Iraqis who turned out it was a joyous and violence free experience. You can read about it at Free Iraqi. Carruthers might want to avoid reading it or he might suffer a grinch-like heart expansion. It's pretty uplifting.
As most of you probably already know turnout in almost all parts of Iraq has been considerably higher than expected, including among Sunnis, and violence has been relatively low. My heart really goes out to the Iraqi National Guard soldiers who were being used as human bomb detectors, greeting suspected suicide bombers solo at the barricades so that no one would die but one ING soldier when the man with the bulgy coat showed up.
This is truly an enormous defeat for the terrorists. Their bold claims that they would stop the elections and kill hundreds of voters have proven totally unrealistic, with only 36 dead in a handful of attacks and almost all of those soldiers, not voters. There's a note of desperation in the internet message from Al Zarqawi today and it's a reasonable bet that it will be downhill from here for the terrorists.
And remember, it's all because Geraldo was there!
Dave
12 - Dave Nalle
Alienboy: You see, the book was written by Jean-François Revel, not by this "Diarmid Cammell" that you namecheck; I assume he did the translation as his name doesn't appear on the book cover.
He was listed as the author on Amazon, but as you should know, I have no control over how Amazon lists the book on here. I thought it was particularly ironic to include a book by one of the small number of increasingly outspoken sensible Frenchmen who want to see their country change its slide into socialism and corruption.
Alienboy: What with the French having tipped the balance during the American War of Indpendence, all this pro-Americanism from the country reactionaries love to hate must be really irritating...
Like any sensible person I love the French, but hate their government.
Alienboy: I can see why you would want to hide the fact, Mr Nalle, it would get in the way of the hysterical bile you seem to want to pump out today.
As I pointed out above, it was Amazon which chose to credit the translator, not me. Maybe a little less leaping to conclusions would make you look like less of a bitter fool? I know that the resounding success of the election in Iraq is a blow to your hopes for more violence and slaughter, but try not to become too bitter about it.
Alienboy: The last 4 paragraphs of your original post are particularly depressing, written as they are full of hate and contempt for other voices and displaying total disregard for other views.
Sorry, I refuse to have a positive attitude about the enemies of freedom.
Alienboy: You really need to get over this imagined anti-Americanism thing (in particular, try to remember that we Europeans are America's best friends in the world and we have a vested interest that the USA does well) and try to get a handle on reality.
Perhaps you should remind The Guardian of that - or start here at home and tell it to Carruthers who is presumably in deep mourning right now.
Dave
13 - Eric Olsen
incredibly exciting day, Dave, and no one other than the terrorists could call the election anything other than an enormous success
14 - NC
No one? How about the "Bush is a fascist" crowd? I bet they've cooked up some interesting spin.
Time for me to head over to Neal Pollack's site and see what pearls of wisdom he has to share.
15 - Eric Olsen
I am scanning the headlines right now - even the Guardian is positive
16 - Dave Nalle
Hard to imagine The Guardian being positive. I wonder how long it will last.
Dave
17 - Dave Nalle
I took a look at The Guardian page. The relatively favorable lead article on the election was picked up from the more moderate Observer. Give them another day or two and I guarantee they'll be spinning it negative when their pet socialist commentators have had time to figure out how to take such positive news and squeeze the nuggets of negativism out of it.
Dave
18 - NC
You'd think these motherfuckers could muster a word or two of half-hearted enthusiasm, but anything that's good for Bush is ipso facto bad for the world, right?
19 - Eric Olsen
hilarious - I assume you aren't talking about Michelle, but those to whom she refers remaining curiously silent on one of the epochal events in the last 50 years of the Middle East
20 - NC
Indeed. They should look on the bright side, though: no doubt plans are underway even now within terrorist circles to assassinate the new Iraqi prime minister, whoever he may be. That'll show Bush, huh?
21 - Dave Nalle
From what I can tell, with every new outrage the terrorists are losing acceptance with Iraqis and the reaction is starting to snowball. If the terrorism continues I wouldn't be surprised to see popular reprisals, which could get very messy.
Dave
22 - andy marsh
Wouldn't they normally call that a civil war?
23 - Dave Nalle
A civil war suggests organized military style forces on both sides. I'm thinking we might be looking at something more like lynch mobs going after terrorists and terrorist sympathizers. Now that the election has come off fairly well a lot of Iraqis seem to be royally pissed at the terrorists.
Dave
24 - RJ
I'm thinking along the lines of roving bands of vigilante death squads with a singular goal: Kill the Ba'athist holdouts and their foreign terrorist allies...
25 - Dave Nalle
Exactly, RJ. If Allawi gets in power, gets the military stabilized and the US moves out, death squads for terrorists wouldn't be inconceivable. Allawi has some rough edges and so do some of the other leading contenders.
Dave