The Long War Journal: Election Day Eve in Iraq

Written by Bill Roggio on October 14, 2005 8:39 AM to The Long War Journal

Available online at: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2005/10/election_day_ev.php

The referendum on Iraq’s constitution is just hours away. Coalition forces have labored for months to provide a manageable security environment to allow the citizens of Iraq to cast their ballots. The recent operations in Anbar have driven al Qaeda and the insurgency underground in the cities and towns along the Euphrates River.

Despite al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups’ threats, security incidents have been light on the day leading up to the election. Nine Iraqis were wounded in two separate incidents in cities of Kirkuk and Baghdad. The offices of the Sunni Iraqi Islamic Party were attacked by “insurgents”, no doubt in retaliation for their support of the constitution after the concessions made by the Iraqi government. Coalition forces arrested fifteen suspected insurgents in the northern city of Mosul. Iraqi soldiers arrested ten terrorists, including a cell leader in of Al-Latifiyah, and nine terrorists in Al-Haswah.

A poll taken by the Iraqi newspaper Azzaman predicts that up to ninety percent of those polled will turn out to vote. Two-thirds of those polled support the constitution. The poll was taken prior to the compromise. Baghdad has a large Sunni population, and al Qaeda will have plenty of beheadings to conduct to make up for the Sunni’s participation in the blasphemous democratic elections.

al Qaeda and the insurgency talked tough and struck hard in the months leading up to the January 30th election for the transitional assembly, but in the end they were unable to derail the will of the Iraqi people. Their impotence was exposed for all the world to see. The voters, in defiance to the butcher’s threats, showed up to vote and displayed their purple fingers. They will do so again in several hours, in the hope that their vote will move their country forward. Al Qaeda will wonder why the Ummah yet again abandoned them in their time of need.