From the NYT:
The voting in Baghdad streets of Baghdad were closed to traffic, but full of children playing soccer, and men and women walking, some carrying babies. Everyone, it seemed, was going to vote.
Even in the so-called Sunni Triangle, a hotbed of resistance to the American occupation, people voted, too. In Baquba, 60 miles north of Baghdad, all the polling stations that reported indicated a huge turnout.
In Mosul, the restive city to the north, large turnouts were reported, even in the Sunni Muslim areas.
The photos from the Times are remarkable and moving. Hopefully the early reports of unexpectedly high turnout will hold up--especially in Sunni areas. And if they do, hopefully that will take some wind out of the "withdraw-now" line, pushed by both some Dems and Republicans. The U.S.'s stay shouldn't be mainly driven by what the U.S. wants but instead by Iraqis. It's what we owe them. And for the moment, the coalition likely to win power apparently wants us to stick around.
