The Grand Imperial Wizard of Iraq
Before we get to the good news, check out this weird Times headline:
Violence Fails to Spoil a Party Atmosphere on Baghdad's Streets
What's the point of mentioning...? Oh never mind. What do we call a reverse "Damning But?"
Anyway, reporter Dexter Filkins goes on to write that the Independent Election Commission of Iraq estimates turn out at eight million people, or 57 percent. Then he goes from the fantastic to the incredible:
The predicted low turnout in Anbar, a hotspot of Sunni resistance to the American occupation, was exceeded to such an extent that extra voting materials had to be rushed to outlying villages, where long lines were formed at polling stations, Mr. Ayar said.
Ready, set, go, bloggers. Now we have to pile on the "boycott" meme. We have to change the discourse: It was no "voter boycott" the Muslim Scholars Asscociation was attempting, but "voter suppression." Harith al-Dhari's group does not represent the Sunni people any more than Abu Musab al-Zarqawi does. These people are shams, phonies, liars, murderes. And they lost.
To put their activities in another perspective: The Muslim Scholars Association and Zarqawi's "Al Qaeda in Iraq" franchise attempted to do to the Sunni Arabs what Jim Crow laws and the KKK inflicted for decades on African-Americans in the South: rob them of their freedom, dignity and inalienable human rights. We can't say it enough: this war is about civil rights in Iraq.
Hmmm, where's all that talk about the "Resistance" now?
UPDATE: Be prepared. Final voter turn-out percentages may be dropping. Could we go below 50 percent? Still a victory for democracy, of course, but also possibilities for face-saving spin for the terrorists, the Sunni clerical establishment and Juan Cole.
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