It's October 2005 in Iraq

he does have a lovely singing voice

those weapons of mass destruction will show up any day now, mark my words.

I heard a radio show about the Green Zone though! It doesn't sound that bad... they have a Pizza Hut! And you can buy porn DVD's!

Because of God, George W. Bush and the United States of America...the freedom loving sandmonkeys of Iraq now have calendars! It's the first time they can say it's October!

God Bless America!

So not the way BushCo would have wanted it -- the election is six days away and after Katrina/Rita and now Miers, the Administration seems punch-drunk and flailing while that vote starts to loom. Bush's speech on Thursday was briefly noted by the rah-rah pundits and ignored by everyone else.

An LA Times story on the state of things is one perspective, doubtless there are others.

And more die.

Apparently in the past day or two the 2000th US soldier died in this war. The number of seriously wounded is far, far higher than this. When we achieve a cumulative casualty figure ten times what the figure was on the day "major hostilities ended" will there be a cake? Will our president fly to an aircraft carrier and parade around in a flight suit? Will Rumsfeld get another medal?

Some potential traction for a yes vote on Saturday:

One of Iraq's main Sunni Arab parties will endorse the country's new constitution in Saturday's crucial referendum, a spokesman has said.

Ayad Sammarai, of the Iraqi Islamic party, said Shia and Kurdish leaders have agreed to review the charter after elections in December.

anyone in britain last night see salam pax 'the baghdad blogger' give a fairly convincing account of why he, and other iraqi voters, should and will vote to endorse the constitution?

basic reason: this is as good as it's going to get. if we go back to the drawing board, then what come's out is liable to be a lot less liberal. He said, quite rightly, that depending on what type of govt gets elected the way could be open to theocracy (article 2 - no law shall contradict 'undisputed rules of islam' etc) but the fact that a number of moderate sunni politicians have now, very bravely, said they will endorse, his father included, is undoubtedly an extremely positive development that people should be ready to applaud.

Interesting observation and very good point -- essentially the question is, what upside can be found through it all? Importantly -- and I think this is recognized by many -- a lot of people are worried that Bush et al tries to claim a mantle that he doesn't deserve, should something work. We shall see.

Meanwhile, I should say that Belgravia Dispatch has been absolutely amazing reading this month -- Greg D. stepped aside for his honeymoon and to take a break, I believe, and has turned over the blog to two highly productive and just opposing enough folks, Dan Darling and Eric Martin, who have been going wonk crazy with all sorts of analysis. Sometimes a hard slog but still.

Anyway, Martin today has a post up about the new agreement announced and possible implications.

And so, the vote happened...without much worry, it turns out. Which is of course a good thing, in that only a fool wants MORE death in this situation.

Question is, what are the results and what will they mean? Final totals and confirmation unavailable for a few days, so in the meantime keep a calm eye on things as you can...

The headline on my local Sunday newspaper proclaimed loudly and proudly that Iraqi Sunnis took part in the election in large numbers. I trust this information so much that I did not yet bother to read the remainder of the "story".

My gut tells me it might be true, or it might not, but that the first gush of press releases would automatically claim this is true regardless - and the quality of the reporting in Iraq is so dismal that it will take a good month for the truth to come into focus.

Initial word is that two provinces were leaning 'no' -- three would have to vote no for the constitution to be rejected.

It's October here as well, Ned.

It's October everywhere! Except where it isn't. (The convention of naming the threads this way just happened randomly but I suppose I am trying to give a sense of time as this keeps dragging on without apparent end.)

Sorry, that was a very bad joke. :-)

Dexter Filkins' current lead on nytimes.com:

"Iraqi election officials said today that they were investigating what they described as "unusually high" vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many 99 percent of the voters were reported to have cast ballots in favor of Iraq's new constitution, raising the possibility that the results of Saturday's referendum could be called into question..."

Hey, they DO have an American-style democracy already! When's Bolton showing up to stop the recounts?

I was thinking of starting a separate thread for TRIAL OF SADDAM but don't have much of worth to say about it right now (but hoping others do).

Saw some BBC World Service coverage this morning ... there was a dept.-store-like bell going off regularly in the courtroom, yes?

"I am still the president and I don't recognize your authority" seems like apredictable tactic. The mass slaughter this first trial covers predates the Saddam-Rumsfeld handshake and the aid that came with it, yes?

Guardian journalist missing in Iraq
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1595777,00.html

fyi: Saddam Hussein's trial

Apparently Baghdad's mayor is dead.

As is a lawyer in the Saddam trial. Meanwhile, election results are still delayed.

And twelve US troops have died since the referendum. Mmm.

So here's the score -- two provinces have rejected the constitutino by two-thirds plus, meaning if a third does so then the constitution is rejected in general. Result on the remaining heavily Sunni province due in two days...

Who might the Administration like to see as the next puppe-- prime minister of Iraq? Could it beeeeeeee....

http://redstateson.blogspot.com/2005/10/that-morphing-beast.html

The constitution has been accepted -- but US casualties have now officially reached 2000.