Off the Cuff / My Other Journal

Wow! Iraqi voter turnout

I just heard on the morning news that the voter turnout in Iraq is 72%. So incredible... I was giving it a 20% possibility. I don't know how they reached that number so early, but it should at least be halfway close to the truth.

Iraqis have certainly gained a lot of respect. Despite the threats of attack and actual attacks on the polling centers, the large risk of facing death, the false warnings claiming that democracy is against their religion, and all the other threats administered by their own black-sheep kin, these people have shown that they can take their destiny in their own hands.

Ever since I started voting, I never missed a vote except for once when we were out of the country and I couldn't get the absentee ballot; still, under the Iraqis' conditions, I can't honestly say I'd be voting, come rain or come shine, but then, my country hasn't been through what theirs have been going through either.

In short, Iraqis deserve a big applause at the world's stage.