Iraqis will vote to oust their foreign protectors

[Thom Little]

Samarra, a notoriously rebellious Sunni-dominated city 60 miles north of Baghdad, is just the kind of place that today's elections must engage if Iraq is to have a future without an insurgency - and the shocking bloodshed it has brought. The city certainly has not entered the latest era of US-sponsored government quietly or peacefully. Since the invasion in 2003 it has been so deeply in the grip of violence that US forces have sealed it off from the rest of Iraq with a wall of sand.

.......

US commanders in the city say they are under no illusions about why residents will turn out in large numbers.

"What motivates them is they think voting is part of a process to get us out of Samarra," said Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wald, the head of the locally based US 3rd Infantry Division.

"There is a feeling here of a 'legitimate resistance' that only fights us because we are here. It follows if they have a legitimate government that they feel represents them, they can pressure the Americans to leave."


http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=2409002005

[BayouBengal07]

1. Interesting

We look at high voter turn out in Iraq as a sign that Iraqis want our Western democracy...

BUT...

We also use elections as gauges to pull down troop deployment and say that as the Iraqis advance and participate we will stand down...hmmm...


So I could see Iraqis voting just because they know we will leave if they do. Interesting perspective!