For a report closest to the truth of the matter, turn to Central Command:
Four vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices detonated in the Iraqi capital in the span of 90 minutes this morning. Initial reports indicate 26 people died in the blasts, with at least 21 more wounded.Despite loss of life, a spokesman with the 1st Cavalry Division said none of the suicide bombers hit their intended targets.
"All of these car bombers were stopped by security forces before they could reach their intended targets," said Lt. Col. James Hutton, the division's public affairs officer. "While the any loss of life is tragic, it could have been a lot worse."
It's also striking that the terrorists' targeted area remains in Baghdad, a city close to the size of New York but geographically constrained in relation to the rest of the country. Mainstream reports are not likely to carry the tactical observation of James Hutton — tragically, because it depicts a faltering enemy.
MORE: IP found Iraq regular Austin Bay's finest paragraph:
[T]hese thugs are going to fail. The Iraqi people are going to deal the Middle East's ancien regime of tyrant and terrorist a devastating political and psychological defeat. Despite the campaign of chaos and intimidation, a recent poll in Baghdad found 60 to 70 percent of the capital's voters intend to vote. Kurdish and Iraqi Shia leaders predict a good turnout in their regions. Americans can barely manage a 50 percent voter turnout, and here, nobody lobs mortar rounds at the electorate.
Perhaps the most insidious design of modern relativism was its attempt to rob the free world of confidence, turning success into complacency and complacency into lazy spiritlessness. Taking victory over impossible odds for granted, the West now finds its confidence occasionally — though briefly — painfully compromises like a trick knee. It is argued that if a thing makes us sad, or it is difficult, we ought to divest ourselves and peddle euphemisms for abandonment and self-service like "exit strategy" and "realism."
As before, we only need look to the Iraqis to reacquaint ourselves with reality. What is the objective of strongmen in Iraq? To prevent Iraqis from taking control of their country and their free will. Bombs, mutilation, kidnappings, wanton destruction — but nothing has stopped the vote. The January 30th election has, notably, escaped subterfuge; for if a poisoned slate were on the ballot, far fewer gangland murders would have been planned. Occupied Japan in particular faced a very clever campaign of sedition by Moscow-backed Communists led by Kyuichi Tokuda; Iraq's enemies, on the other hand, haven't the brains to be subtle.
This has not gone unnoticed by Iraqis, for whom self-congratulatory retreat is not a luxury. They've prospered. A historic election is at hand, and a public will to turn out three of every four Iraqis to participate in it is the terrorists' defining failure.
A BEAUTIFUL SIGHT: Omar took some photographs of the democratic process.