Going smoothly? If the insurgents want to disrupt the elections in Iraq, then they presumably would stage any big attacks in the early part of the day. That does not appear to be happening as of now. So it looks like the success of the elections will boil down to turnout and the election results themselves.
posted by Quiddity at 1/30/2005 01:25:00 AM
Perhaps the rebels are just trying to make the point that they're not anti-democracy, they're anti-U.S. They could brag about this later and gain popular support.
I don't think anyone is surprised at the turnout in the Shia and the Kurd areas.
Still, the lack of violence may indicate that the insurgency is smaller than previously believed or that the recent capture of top Zarkawi aides may have dealt the insurgency a serious blow.
One problem, the vote figures are scaled back and al Jazeera is reporting that polls covering turnout are to be considered suspect.
We have learned that the media was confined to only 5 polling stations. 4 were in Shia areas where turnout was expected to be high, and 1 was in an upscale Sunni district. So, natch, the video from a Shia station is going to look great. However, it is misleading. Dahr Jamail has reported that turnout in Sunni provinces is so low that only the police and militia have voted, the boycott is that complete, in Samarra, a city of 200,000 or so, less than 1400 voted.
Is the resistance to the US occupation dimished? Nope.
Has America been played by image control, again? Yep.
The coming days should be interesting indeed.
