While staying up till 1:30 am and fliping throught the T.V. I was frustrated for not really being able to see what was going on at Iraqi polling locations. You had Geraldo Rivera jumping up and down like a twit(was he a cheerleader in college)calling this the "greatest day in his life" on top of a building with 4 armed U.S. troops glued to his ass. Then they switched back to the FOX studios where a reporter(I missed his name) said that there were 12 Iraqi deaths so far from the violence, but "NO" American soldiers. I wondered how many Iraqi's had to die to make this giddy- fest become a bit more realistic. Over at CNN, they were interviewing Middle East journalists who talked with fondess and optimism about the election. They also talked about the legitimacy of the election if the Sunni's didn't vote. Cut to Iraqi's outside the country: England had a joyous turnout; but this type of coverage bothers me because they faced none of the hardships that the Iraqi's back in Bahgdad face. MSNBC did about the same thing. Many were ecstatic that people were voting. Hopefully this election will bring our troops home sooner. The real concern were the Sunni's. Would they show up? So far the answer is no. Cut back to Geraldo: He was talking to Chalabi and blowing kisses to him on the phone.

via Talk Left

Journalist Chris Allbritton writes on his blog, Back to Iraq:

9:34:37 AM So far, not as much violence as everybody feared. The question is why? Is the insurgency taking a pass on this one? (It's possible. Our sources in the insurgency say the election will make no difference to them, so why expend a lot of energy?) Is the insurgency much weaker than previously thought? Or is the level of security sufficient to keep it in check? If that's the case, then that is discouraging, too, because the measures that have kept today safe (so far) are truly draconian. No driving, dusk to dawn curfews, states of emergency. If that's what it takes to provide security in Iraq, why erase one police state only to replace it with another?

Update from other Iraqi blogs:

Today in Iraq

Democracy in Iraq

Back to Iraq