So Iraqis turned out in droves to vote yesterday, obliterating the predictions of defeatist politicians and self-described "experts" in the U.S.
Turnout in what was a mostly peaceful election was overwhelming. Election officials estimated up to 11 million of the nation's 15 million registered voters took part in Thursday's vote, which would put overall turnout at more than 70 percent.In the Shiite province of Najaf province, as many as 80 percent of the voters cast ballots for the four-year parliament. So many Sunni Arabs voted Thursday that ballots ran out in some places.
Much of the mainstream U.S. media was in a funk as predictions of doom did not come to pass, and much of their spin (aka "reporting") is as negative as they think they can get away with.
But millions of ink-stained Iraqi fingers say otherwise, and the Wall Street Journal editorial page is more insightful.
President Bush has done better at explaining his Iraq policy of late, but the most eloquent rebuttal to American defeatists came from the millions of Iraqis who voted yesterday for a new parliament. They are now practicing the democracy that the U.S. promised when it deposed Saddam Hussein. This is a great achievement.Posted by Alan at December 16, 2005 05:57 AMVoter turnout was reportedly high across nearly all regions of the country, including such former no-go zones as Fallujah and Tal Afar in the Sunni Triangle. Terrorists managed only scattered attacks, far fewer than in the first round of elections in January.
The rap on January's vote was that Iraq's Sunni Arabs didn't participate, but this time they did and in huge numbers. The rap on October's referendum was that most Sunnis opposed the new Iraq constitution, but this time they voted to have a say in writing any changes to that charter. Jordan's King Abdullah and other neighboring Sunni leaders complain that Iraq's Sunnis are mistreated. But the truth is that yesterday's vote gave Iraq's Sunni Arabs a far larger voice in shaping their government than average Sunnis have in Jordan or Syria, Saudi Arabia or Egypt.
Another mark of success is that no one really knows which parties will emerge victorious. In that sense, the vote was more genuinely competitive than the average U.S. Congressional election.