Iraqi voting has started

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Originally Posted by scaeagles

I saw Zogby interviewed today and his reports are that Sunni turnout in at 50%. Not too bad.

Zogby?....Hmm, I remember that name somewhere. Wait, it's coming back to me. He was the guy that said that his numbers conclusively showed Kerry would be the winner.

Regardless, turnout is good. Violence has been present, but fairly minimal. This is far from the debacle it was predicted to be. To the contrary - it has been very successful.

I agree that it has gone more smoothly than I expected. As to "very successful" though? We have no way of knowing that yet.

First, there was no way that the interim government could take over by July 1. Then, there was no way that there could be an election in late January. now, those things don't matter - hell they were successful - it's the next thing that will be the problem. Always is.

First there were tons of WMD's and we knew exactly where they were. Then, there were weapons "programs" and we would find the labs. Then there was nothing. Now, those things don't matter. ... I knew that pattern looked familiar.

Bottom Line: Things could go well there, they could also erupt into a civil war. The fact is, none of us have any idea how it will turn out at this point. This is but a very small step in the process. There is still no forseeable date for when there will be a trained Iraqi force that can maintain any semblence of peace there. Calling it a success at this point is wishful thinking in the highest order.

And regardless of how successful it turns out, you will have a hard time convincing me that bombing the holy hell out a country, killing untold numbers of civilians, detaining and abusing suspects indefinitely who were never even tried nor convicted of anything, and disrupting an infrastructure that has yet to be repaired, was the best way to go about this. We got the guy we wanted to get but Americans are still dying and won't be coming home in the forseeable future. Was taking out one man really worth 1300+ American lives? Was this really our only option?

Hardly.