A New Dawn

Iraq is once again about to engage in historic elections throughout the country. But instead of hearing how things are from back here in the US, let me clear the floor and let Mohammed from Iraq the Model describe events:

Tomorrow it’s going to be us who decide and I can feel the greatness of the responsibility because the result will draw the shape of our future and will determine how long it will take till we can announce victory in this war; our war against the past, against the past’s illusions and the past’s mistakes; with our hands we can make this war last shorter… with our own choices.

One year ago we wanted to defeat terror and the shadows of dictatorship and tell them that we are not willing to go backwards and that we’re ready to build a new Iraq where the people choose their representatives…
The choice didn’t matter then as much as voting itself did; all we wanted to do was to go and cast our votes regardless of the choices we made.

Yesterday we were sitting together with our friends talking and discussing our points of view. We found that our ambitions are way bigger than the mere idea of voting or practicing our right to elect, now we feel that our votes are a responsibility and a heavy one.

We are hesitant and worried about our choices and maybe the opinion polls results that we’ve seen-or at least from what I hear from people I meet-indicate that there’s a higher percentage than normal of people who haven’t made up their mind yet on who to vote for.

Me and my friends were sitting discussing “who’s best for Iraq?” and the reasons on which each one of us based his/her opinion. I was seeing a drastic change in the sense of the historic responsibility we shoulder.

Read it all. He's hearing sporadic gunfire and explosions, but nothing has been reported thus far. Have the terrorists waited until today to continue their campaign of horrors against the Iraqi people? Is that why they were laying low over the past few days? We'll find out over the next few hours. Early reports indicate that things are quiet, though rumors are rampant of all manner of malfeasance.

Alaa of the Messopotamian shares his reasoning on how to vote in the election, Iraq Vote notes that an Israeli of Iraqi origin is voting,

Others following the elections: Flopping Aces, Iraqipundit, Roger L. Simon, Pajamas Media has regular updates.

And don't forget The Purple Fingers of Freedom