Iraqi Election Hoopla

Amidst all the hyped hoopla from the mainstream U.S. media, as well as the Bush administration, I think it's a good idea to read what the always on-target Juan Cole has to say about the Iraqi election. As he points out, many Iraqis were no doubt voting in the hope U.S. troops would begin leaving after the election. And it was the Bush administration that was against a one-person, one-vote election of this kind, preferring the controlled installation of Chalabi until Sistani and his followers demanded an election. Read all about it.

I was surfing among the cable news networks last night, taking their almost hysterically positive coverage in small doses, until about four hours after the polls closed in Baghdad. The networks had cameras at voting places in a variety of communities and most of them were still empty or experiencing only a trickle of voters while I watched. Perhaps things picked up after I went to sleep. Or perhaps the Bush administration is exaggerating the turnout. One thing we know for sure: we'll never know whether what we are hearing about the election is truth or propaganda. Bush's America is frustrating that way.