Here’s a roundup of a few reactions to the Iraqi elections:

The Captain has a breakdown of turnout numbers by region:

Nationwide: 72%
Baghdad: 80%
South: 92%
Najaf: 80%
Karbala: 90%

The Baghdad number jumps out immediately. The city has a large Sunni minority and a large number of followers of radical Cleric al Sadr who just a few months ago were killing our boys in Najaf. Chrenkoff has this statement from a Sunni cleric trying to spin the fact that apparently more Sunnis than expected turned out to vote:

” ‘The associationÂ’s call for a boycott of the election was not a fatwa (religious edict), but only a statement,’ said Association of Muslim Scholars spokesman Omar Ragheb. ‘It was never a question of something religiously prohibited or permitted. We never sought to force anyone to boycott’.”

Uh-Huh.

Arthur also breaks down the Sunnis into four main groups:

Talking of “the Sunnis” in the context of the vote is a big generalisation, of course. The Sunnis of Iraq are not a monolith, and arguably could be divided into four different groups, each with its own attitude towards the election: 1) moderate, anti-terror Sunnis who are actually voting; 2) Sunnis who want to vote but by virtue of their residence in terrorist strongholds are too intimidated to; 3) Sunnis who have done the math and couldn’t be bothered to vote because whatever happens, on January 31 they will not be in control of the country; and 4) Sunnis who ran, or directly or indirectly benefited under, Saddam’s regime and are therefore hostile to any changes that see them lose their previous status.

Pretty reasonable assumptions there. The concern, of course, is over international legitimacy. I believe that number comes in at anything over 40%. Anything less, and there are legitimate questions.

Powerline writes of simple faith:

The process by which we succeed in Iraq (if we do) can be thought of as a series of events by which one party keeps faith with the others. First, we kept faith with the people of Iraq by remaining in force to rebuild the country after we toppled Saddam and carried out our search for WMD. Then, the Shiite majority kept faith by rejecting the radical elements when they rose up against the occupation. We then kept faith with the Shiites by scheduling elections and seeing them through as scheduled. And today, the Iraqi people kept faith by turning out and voting.

This is precisely why the reason for the triumph these elections represent will go over the head of the lefties. We’re speaking two different languages here. Words like “faith” have no meaning to people who only believe in what they can see and touch. Don’t get me wrong. I am not talking about God here. I’m talking about the ability to reach outside of yourself and latch on to something that transcends the physical senses. It’s one thing to “believe” in something or someone; as in I “believe” in George Bush (or John Kerry for that matter). It’s quite another thing to say “I have faith in George Bush.” Faith requires a leap beyond logic, beyond the self into the realm of the sublime.

I don’t think that came out exactly the way I intended. I hope I made the point.

Meanwhile, Iraqi bloggers are really upbeat, I mean, to them this must be Christmas, New Years, St. Patricks Day, and the Fourth of July all rolled into one. This from “Iraq the Model” courtesy of Charles Johnson:

We had all kinds of feelings in our minds while we were on our way to the ballot box except one feeling that never came to us, that was fear.

We could smell pride in the atmosphere this morning; everyone we saw was holding up his blue tipped finger with broad smiles on the faces while walking out of the center.

I couldnÂ’t think of a scene more beautiful than that

Finally, Bill and INDC rounds up some misleading wire service headlines:

Scanning a minority of the headlines of a google news search gives us a tedious glimpse of the political unconsciousness of Fifth Columnists:

Bloody dawn to Iraq democracy
Australian, Australia – 25 minutes ago

Iraq vote bloodied by attacks
Swissinfo, Switzerland – 2 hours ago

Iraq poll marred by violence
ABC Online, Australia – 4 hours ago

What’s the real story here? That two dozen people died in a country that’s a regular victim of terrorism? Or that perhaps 8,000,000 people stood up and demanded Democracy, shedding a half-century of brutal oppression and defying the threats of terrorists? What it would take to wring a positive headline out of those editors is beyond me.

I realize “If it bleeds, it leads” is gospel in the MSM but Jeez! Even the NY Times and WAPO had optimistic, almost giddy reports.

As I said in my first post early this morning, I’m going to withhold final judgment on how successful these elections were until some hard numbers come in, probably on Tuesday. But early reports are very encouraging. And if the Iraqi people can maintain this kind of enthusiasm, the transition to a democratic state may be realized despite the certainty that the insurgency will continue.

My guess would be that the insurgents will now concentrate all of their efforts in trying to start a civil war between the Shi’ias and Sunnis. Only by turning Iraq into another Lebanon can the Sunni’s have a chance to dominate the government again.