An early indicator of how things might go. There have been a number of elections of local councils. Few have made the news. The idea of using ration cards as voter identification has been working quite well.

As has been seen with the recent polls, this election shows that, if allowed to freely choose, many Iraqis would not pick an Islamist state. And, as I have said before, if woman are allowed a real vote, a reasonably non-Islamist government would almost certainly result.

Think about it. If the current Islamist troublemakers over there thought they would win a free election, would they be resorting to violence?